Fishless Cycling

[njnauticalnut]

I am in the process of setting up a 75 gallon tank. I am going to cycle it fishless. This is the first time I am doing this so I have a question which may be silly, but I'll ask anyway. Will a tank cycle by adding the daily dose of amonia without introducing bacteria from either gravel, a plant, etc? I would aim to think it would not, but I figured it was worth asking.

M.E.

 

[Sky042]

you need some source of bacteria to digest the ammonia. Otherwise you'll wind up with a tank full of ammonia.

 

[njnauticalnut]

Thanks. That's what I figured. Been a while since I had chemistry, but I did not think it was chemically possible for amonia to turn into bacteria.

 

[vantgE]

Actually eventually the tank will get some bacteria, it'll just take substatially longer for the cycle i'm not sure but before i had my nitrite about three days into the cycle i had some problems with the filter and it was off for a day from what i hear all the bacteria should have died, and two weeks later i hear i'm almost done as my nitrites are going down

 

[heresmike]

You don't need to add bacteria, just ammonia. The bacteria will form on its own, kinda like mold does on food that sits in the fridge too long.

My first fishless cycle where I didn't add any form of bacteria took close to 3 weeks. Others I've done since then I've added BioSpira and/or filter media from another tank... those have taken about 10 days.

 

[pondfreak4365]

I'm with heresmike on this one. We do the fishless cycle, adding only ammonia with no plants, it takes right at 3 weeks to cycle. We had a nitrite reading on day 2.

 

[njnauticalnut]

Thanks, a chemistry lesson learned. Since the amonia will turn to bacteria eventually, I am going to go the route with just the amonia, figured this way the tank starts out totally new.

I had a disaster with my other tank a few months back as my fish kept dying. A fish would show signs one day and within 24 hours they would be dead. I got a lot of advice from folks on here, but nothing worked. I treated with an antibiotic, but it didn't work. I had moved and thought maybe something happened in the move, but never truly found out. After the last fish died, I thouroughly cleaned the tank and got it up and running again. My fish seem to be okay now, but I just am not comfortable taking anything from that tank and putting it into the new one. If the current tank remains okay, I will eventually use it as a hospital and/or quanrantine tank.

I don't mind waiting the three weeks so I will cycle it with just amonia. I appreciate your assistance.

 

[luxum]

Heehee, ammonia doesn't "turn into" bacteria. It feeds bacteria. It will be faster if you can seed your tank with some established bacteria, but if you can't, rest assured that mother nature will provide! It will just take a little longer.

 

[ddm18]

Sorry - slightly off topic, but have any brits around here actually found somewhere in Britain that sells ammonia? There was talk of Boots doing it, but then someone else posted that his/her Boots store had no idea what he was talking about. Anyone?

 

[clutterydrawer]

Sorry - slightly off topic, but have any brits around here actually found somewhere in Britain that sells ammonia? There was talk of Boots doing it, but then someone else posted that his/her Boots store had no idea what he was talking about. Anyone?

a while ago someone found some manufactured by Jeyes (they make household type products + suchlike, in case you didn't know) and suggested that if you phoned the company they might tell you where a nearby stockist is. i found some in a shop called Jacks but i think its a local thing not a chain so not much goo dif you don't live in leeds.

 

[ddm18]

Sorry - slightly off topic, but have any brits around here actually found somewhere in Britain that sells ammonia? There was talk of Boots doing it, but then someone else posted that his/her Boots store had no idea what he was talking about. Anyone?

a while ago someone found some manufactured by Jeyes (they make household type products + suchlike, in case you didn't know) and suggested that if you phoned the company they might tell you where a nearby stockist is. i found some in a shop called Jacks but i think its a local thing not a chain so not much goo dif you don't live in leeds.

What's it called? "Jeyes Ammonia"???

 

[Weirdfish]

Its called Jayes Kleen Off

You need to find one of those hardware shops that you've always wondered who still shops there and they'll probably have it.

I asked in all the main diy & supermarket places to be met with blank faces, similar to the look you get when you talk about fishless cycling in the LFS . I was working near a small hardware/cooking bits type shop and popped in on the off chance and sure enough they had it.


BTW it looks like this,

 

[ddm18]

Ah, excellent. I'll just have to remember that for 6 months - a year for when I get round to setting up my cichlid tank!!!

 

[njnauticalnut]

Luxum,

Thank you for the explanation as I was struggling with the concept of amonia "turning into" bacteria. I checked further into it and according to the Aquaculture Center at the University of Massachusetts amonia actually doesn't feed the bacteria, the amonia is removed by the bacteria initially converting it to nitrite and then to nitrate.

I guess when cycling a tank fishless, bacteria grows naturally, it just takes longer if nothing is added to move the process along.

Very interesting.