Fishless Cycling

[reg]

Thank you for your help. I've used Novaqua for years with no real problems; my one fish lived for five plus years. I do believe that it dechlorinates; it says that as a dechlorinator alone it works better than most other products. Because Novaqua does not eliminate chloramines, I bought AmQuel plus, also, which removes ammonia, etc.-I would not be adding this until the tank is done cycling.

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.

 

[reg]

Could I test the ammonia, etc. levels every 3 days or so, rather than every day?

 

[Scotty87]

I have just bought my fish tank and have been researching how to cycle my tank. As a total beginner that knows nothing at all (at the minute) about keeping fish I must say that this topic is very very helpful! I now have a much clearer understanding of how to cycle my new tank!

Very good work (from the point of a total newbie )

 

[Lord Zogat]

Could I test the ammonia, etc. levels every 3 days or so, rather than every day?

I would say at the start of the process yes. As it will take at least several 7 - 10? days for enough bacteria to grow to make any effect. Then you may want to test more often.

My test kit asks I use 8 drops per test, I now use a quarter of the water amount and use only 2 drops, so I do test every day. I know I run a danger of having skewed readings taking a smaller sample, but until it turns yellow and doesn't show any sign of green, I know I still have ammonia in the tank.

 

[Egmel]

Do you have to heat a tank to cycle it? I'm looking at starting a 10 Gallon (US) coldwater tank and I don't have a heater It may well take longer to cycle but I'm guessing the bacteria will still grow.

Cheers
Helen

 

[rdd1952]

You're correct that you can cycle without heating the tank. As you said, it may take a little longer as the higher temperatures promote bacteria growth but it will still cycle. If you can find someone you trust with an established tank that can give you some media to jump start your cycle, that would definitely help.

 

[Egmel]

You're correct that you can cycle without heating the tank. As you said, it may take a little longer as the higher temperatures promote bacteria growth but it will still cycle. If you can find someone you trust with an established tank that can give you some media to jump start your cycle, that would definitely help.

Thanks for the quick reply, I think I'll probably start from scratch as I don't know any established fish keepers, it may take longer but I don't mind, I'll watch the plants move with the filter flow quite happily!

I think my task for this weekend it to find a reputable fish shop within a short train journey of my house, my tank wont arrive until Sept (When my parents are dropping it into me) but I think having read loads on this site that I need to start investigating the LFSs now!

 

[countdown]

WOOHOO my tank has cycled




My tank is 14 gallons and it took exactly 2 weeks, using the add and wait method, was done completely from scratch (no seeding).

Thought my nitrite were never going to come down, but checked them this morning and they were 0. Happened overnight, they were off the chart the night before. Had to double check them.

Done a large water change earlier to bring down the nitrates, originally around 90ppm.


I now have 6 glolight tetra's in there - they seem to be doing well


Oh its sooo exciting

 

[reg]

Thank you very much for your help!

Could I test the ammonia, etc. levels every 3 days or so, rather than every day?

I would say at the start of the process yes. As it will take at least several 7 - 10? days for enough bacteria to grow to make any effect. Then you may want to test more often.

My test kit asks I use 8 drops per test, I now use a quarter of the water amount and use only 2 drops, so I do test every day. I know I run a danger of having skewed readings taking a smaller sample, but until it turns yellow and doesn't show any sign of green, I know I still have ammonia in the tank.

 

[kassy360]

Wow .. lots of reading and lots to do. Maybe my plain old beta in a bowl isn't so bad after all.... it's worked for this long.

 

[purplesnakegirl]

I'm pretty new to fishless clycling and have decided that it is the best way to set up my new 30g aquarium. Ok so I've started the cycling (add and wait method) by adding ammonia at at 5ppm and that was about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the temp is 28 degrees celcius. I've been testing every day and the ammonia is just about down to 2ppm but there is still no sign of nitrates or nitrites. From what I have read this doesn't sound normal. Two days ago I took some of the filter fluff stuff out of the office fish tank and some pebbles from my betta bowl and put them in my new aquarium hoping they would help but still nothing Is it ok for it to be this slow?

 

[rdd1952]

I'm pretty new to fishless clycling and have decided that it is the best way to set up my new 30g aquarium. Ok so I've started the cycling (add and wait method) by adding ammonia at at 5ppm and that was about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the temp is 28 degrees celcius. I've been testing every day and the ammonia is just about down to 2ppm but there is still no sign of nitrates or nitrites. From what I have read this doesn't sound normal. Two days ago I took some of the filter fluff stuff out of the office fish tank and some pebbles from my betta bowl and put them in my new aquarium hoping they would help but still nothing Is it ok for it to be this slow?

It's odd that your ammonia is going down but you don't have any nitrite (it's normal not to have any nitrate this early unless it's present in your tap water). When ammonia is processed it becomes nitrite so a decrease in ammonia should result in an increase in nitrite. The media from the tank at work should have given your tank a little jump start. If the betta bowl isn't filtered and you're just doing daily water changes, it won't help to move gravel from there since there won't be any (or only a minute amount) bacteria present in the bowl.

What kind of dechlorinator (or any other chemicals) are you using? Some dechlorinators and water conditioners say they remove ammonia which will prevent a tank from cycling since it removes it before it can be processed and broken down. You only want your dechlorinator to remove chlorine and chloramine.

 

[purplesnakegirl]

The only chemicals I've added is a chlorine remover.

"Aquasonic Water Purifier
For removal of chlorine and chloramines from tap water
Many municipal water supplies are chlorinated. Chlorine is extremely harmful to aquarium fish. Water Purifier will effectively neutralize chlorine and chloramines in tap water. Following the use of Water Purifier, Aquasonic "Natural Home" Water conditioners are recommended to create an ideal habitat for fish and aquatic plants.
Add 1ml per 10 litres of new aquarium Water."

I assume it Removes only the chlorine. ?. But then it says that it neutralises it so is that bad?

 

[- Jez -]

Gah.

Cycling my 8.2 gallon tank has failed miserably. I think I overdosed it with ammonia in the beginning - it's been nearly two weeks and the ammonia reading is lodged stubbornly between 3 + 4 ppm, nitrite on 0.25 and no sign of any nitrates at all. I'm wondering if my filter's just not doing the business. It said to place it about a centimeter under the water level which I have done, but I just read something about having it breaking the surface instead. This morning I gave up and took as much of the water out as I could, and replaced it. The ammonia reading is still about 0.25 ppm after a 90% water change.

I'm trying to figure out my next move. I don't want to throw some fish in there and watch them die as I'm trying to get the water right. But I'm so fed up of all this stressing over an empty tank. Words of encouragement? Cash gifts? Gin?

 

[purplesnakegirl]

I tested the water yesterday and it seems the ammonia is dropping pretty fast now. its now .50 but still no nitrites or nitrates. ???. Should I just keep waiting untill it drops to 0 and then add more ammonia?