My Tank Has Cycled

[jrussuk]

hooray!!! my tank has seemed to have cycled, ammonia dropping from 4 pmm to 0 in less than 12 hours and nitrites has dropped to 0 i am going to do the large water change tomorrow but cant get any fish till sunday due to work commitments. Do i still add a little ammonia bout 2pmm a day to keep the bactiria alive till saturday then test the tank sunday morning to make sure everything is ok before i add fish?
Many thanks for everybodys help so far in my 1st fishless cycling

 

[SnoutUK]

Heres a little trick, add some food to the tank, although there is no fish, it will waste away and create ammonia for you, and not very high levels either. When i cycled my tank, i didn't go out any buy ammonia, i used fish food! Worked exactly the same and was ready within a week. Fish have been happily in the tank for just over a week so far and no problems yet!

 

[Amunet]

You know.. I've been wondering this same exact thing.
I've been cycling my 10 gal with ammonia, and I'm not sure what to do when my tank cycles and I can't get fish right away.
Would I keep adding in the ammonia? As Snout suggested, would it be better to add in fishfood instead until you get some fish?

 

[Aprilia997]

If you have fish food by all means add it to the tank to maintain the ammonia levels.

 

[mark.w.jones]

With fish food you don't actually know how much ammonia you are adding to your tank each time. The most likely outcome is that you won't add enough and a lot of the bacteria you have built up will die off. I would suggest carrying on with the ammonia additions for now every day. Then the day before you add your fish do a 90% water change and don't forget to lower the temp. on the heater. You can then actually 100% stock your tank from the next day if youre feeling brave like I did or fully stock over a few days.

 

[jrussuk]

thanks for your replys i cant fully stock my tank for a while due to finding some of the fish i want. if i only buy a couple of fish this weekend oblivesy this means there wont be enough ammonia being produced to maintain the bacteria so if i get a couple of fish every couple of weeks till im fully stocked would this work or will my tank go into another small cycle?