Fishless Cycling

[rdd1952]

Never heard of that one. If it doesn't have an surfactants in it then it is probably safe. Just shake it up and see if you get bubbles.

 

[l337dave]

hmm,

okey I'm back now, and the tank looks terrible! there is lots of brown algea growing on the glass and on the sand.



I asked my brother to come round and add the ammonia, which he did but there were a few days where it was missed. I've tested the levels now I'm back and the are small ammounts of NH3 and N02 still present 24hours after he last added the ammonia.

any ideas..?

...I was hoping to get fish this weekend!


dave.

 

[rdd1952]

Don't worry about the algae. It is normal for a cycling or nearly cycled tank. All that nitrate leads to algae. If it is the brown type it will clear up once you are finished, do the big water change and add fish. Just keep adding ammonia until the ammonia and nitrite go back to 0 in about 10 to 12 hours. If your nitrite level is low now, you are probably very close to finished cycling.

 

[- Jez -]

Okay, so we're on Day 1 of trying to do this whole cycling milarkey. Just dosed my 8.2 UK gallon tank with five drops of ammonia (reckon that'll be enough?) How long should I wait before I test the water?

Question 2: In my master test kits, all the test cards say Freshwater, except the ammonia card, which says Saltwater. Is that normal?

Three: I've only had water in my tank for a couple of days and the PH is pretty high, around 7.4 - 7.6. I'm guessing I need it a bit lower than this. Will it go down of its own accord or do I have to do something?

Should I turn off all the lights/heater/filter stuff before I put my hands in the tank? My mum is panicking about me getting electrocuted.

 

[rdd1952]

Okay, so we're on Day 1 of trying to do this whole cycling milarkey. Just dosed my 8.2 UK gallon tank with five drops of ammonia (reckon that'll be enough?) How long should I wait before I test the water?

Question 2: In my master test kits, all the test cards say Freshwater, except the ammonia card, which says Saltwater. Is that normal?

Three: I've only had water in my tank for a couple of days and the PH is pretty high, around 7.4 - 7.6. I'm guessing I need it a bit lower than this. Will it go down of its own accord or do I have to do something?

Should I turn off all the lights/heater/filter stuff before I put my hands in the tank? My mum is panicking about me getting electrocuted.

You can test the ammonia a few minutes after you add it. It won't take long for the filter to distribute and mix the ammonia and water. Your test kit should have both a freshwater and saltwater ammonia card (at least my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kits do). If it didn't have one, ask someone at your local fish store. They probably have an extra one laying around since you get a new one in every kit you buy.

Don't worry about the pH at 7.4 to 7.6. That really isn't high (about the same as mine). And while the tank is cycling, it will fluctuate quite a bit. Since there aren't any fish in the tank, it isn't a problem for it to fluctuate widely. Once the cycle is finished and you make the big water change, it will be fine. It may or may not drop once the tank is cycled and stocked. It really depends on the buffering capacity (KH) of your water. The lower the KH, the more likely other things such as peat, CO2, bogwood, etc will change the pH.

As for being electrocuted, it is probably best to always cut everything off. I always unplug my filters (don't want to lower the water enough that they try to pump dry) and the heater as it will pop if it is heating and out of the water for more than a short period (know from experience). I don't unplug the lights as I want to see what I'm doing but that is just me. It is definitely safer to unplug it.

Good Luck.

 

[reg]

I have heard that you can cycle a tank with fish flakes; how do I do this? Also, should the light be on during the cycling?

Thanks!!!

 

[rdd1952]

You can cycle with fish food. It is just harder to regulate how much ammonia you are creating. As the flakes decay and break down, they create ammonia but I don't think anyone really knows how many flakes are needed to raise the ammonia to say 4 ppm. It will work though but may take a little longer. Also, ammonia is much cheaper than fish food. A quart bottle of ammonia is only about 50 cent and you can cycle a LOT of tanks with that much.

 

[reg]

Thank you! I have some old fish food that I need to get rid of so I think I might use that. Can the tank contain water conditioner, i.e. Novaqua?

You can cycle with fish food. It is just harder to regulate how much ammonia you are creating. As the flakes decay and break down, they create ammonia but I don't think anyone really knows how many flakes are needed to raise the ammonia to say 4 ppm. It will work though but may take a little longer. Also, ammonia is much cheaper than fish food. A quart bottle of ammonia is only about 50 cent and you can cycle a LOT of tanks with that much.

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not familiar with Novaqua but from what I just read, I would be a little scared of it. It says it "neutralizes" chlorine and chloramine. You really want a dechlorinator that removes them. The thing that would scare me most is that it says it has buffering action. That could be a big problem if you overdose and maybe even in normal doses since it says it "tends to temporarily buffer water near the neutral point". If that means it lowers/raises the water from it present pH to near 7.0 pH, that could be a big shock to your fish every time you use it.

You definitely need a dechlorinator that preferable removes chlorine and chloramine rather than neutralizes it. You don't want anything that "removes" ammonia or nitrite or the tank won't cycle.

Here (you will have to scroll down the page to Novaqua) is a link to the site I read about it on. To make a long story short, based on what I just read, I personally wouldn't use it. But that's just my opinion. I prefer Stress Coat for my dechlorinator.

 

[UncleHomer]

I started my fishless cycle about a week ago.

So I filled the aquarium and added some water conditioner, let this work for about 24hours.
I then added amonia, had the lvls up around 5ppm maybe a little more.
Then I waited 2 days tested the water, the ammonia was down to about 2 or 3 ppm.
Waited another day then added more amonia
I then tested the nitrites and the lvls were already really high.
Went out and bought a nitrate kit today and the nitrate lvls are super high already too.

Note: 20 gal aquarium and all brank new filter peices. Carbo, sponge and biological white thingies
What am I doing wrong?

 

[rdd1952]

Have you tested your tap water to see what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are in it? If you just started a week ago, it is very odd that you would already be experiencing high nitrate levels and be that far along in your cycle. It could be that you have nitrite and nitrate present in your tap water. If your tap water checks out though and your tank can process 5 ppm of ammonia back to 0 ammonia and nitrite in about 12 hours, then I'd say you are cycled.

 

[UncleHomer]

Have you tested your tap water to see what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are in it? If you just started a week ago, it is very odd that you would already be experiencing high nitrate levels and be that far along in your cycle. It could be that you have nitrite and nitrate present in your tap water. If your tap water checks out though and your tank can process 5 ppm of ammonia back to 0 ammonia and nitrite in about 12 hours, then I'd say you are cycled.

Well I tested my water after treating it with water conditioner and the ammonia and mitrite lvls dont show. Infortunatly before I started the cycle i didnt have nitrate tester.

If the water was indeed the case, must i start obver or can i fix this?

 

[rdd1952]

If it is the tap water, you wouldn't have to start over. It would just be a problem you would have to deal with at every water change. Just run you a few test tubes of tap water and test them. That will let you know if you have bad water. If that shows no problem, then it sounds as if you are well on your way to being cycled.

 

[Lord Zogat]

Questions about borrowing gravel to speed up the bacteria growth.

Do I have to be concerned with what dieases might come from their tank. Or if they have snails would I have to worry about picking up eggs (been there before and never got rid of them). Or would the high levels of consistent ammonia kill anything off?

I am on day 3 of my fishless cycling of my bridged 10 and 20 gallon tanks. The 20 gallon looks more cloudy (very slight at this point) due to its intake being in the 10 gallon to force water through the bridge.

 

[rdd1952]

If you use anything from another tank to help jump start your cycling effort, you would definitely be susceptible to any disease or other issues that are present in that tank. If they have sand and trumpet snails, you would be very likely to move some over with the sand.

On the other hand, I'm not really sure how much bacteria is really present in the gravel or sand since there isn't any water flow through it (except in a tank with an under-gravel filter which are pretty much outdated and not used any more). I don't know if it would really benefit you much to use gravel from the other tank. If you do, just put it in a stocking or something like that and hang it in your tank. That way, you shouldn't have to worry about snails.

As for the ammonia, I don't think it would harm the snails. I don't think much of anything bothers them. I have been through the same thing you mentioned about not being able to get rid of them and finally had to completely clean and redo my 29 gallon tank to get rid of an outbreak of trumpet snails.