Starting Cycling On Wednesday. Preperation And Supplies?

[Cheery-up Bear]

I've decided to start cycling my quarentine/breeding tank while I'm waiting to set up my 4 foot tank. It's 40 litres and has a PAT mini filter. I'm picking up some mature media on Wednesday. I have some smooth gravel to add if that would be better than a bare floor and I have a couple of bits to add for cover and decoration. So here are my questions.

The shop has a weak ammonia solution for cycling but if I have the mature filter media do I need it? Can I add small amounts of flake food instead?

What water testing kit should I get? We have very soft water here. I don't know the PH yet.

Should I have the filter going yet? Should I wait until I have the filter media before I add water?

Can I add plants yet or is better to wait?

Should I have the heater on during this? There's a bit of a heatwave so the house is quite warm. Don't know if this helps or not. I won't be putting fish in until it's finished cycling.

Thanks for reading this.

 

[Dogson]

yes, yes and yes! use your existing media it will quicken the process, bump your heater up to 30 degrees that will also help the bacteria breed quicker and the bacteria will mostly be housed in the filter so have that on too. API master test kit although dearer than strip tests are the most commonly used and probably moire accurate i've just started my fishless cycle today using this kit and very easy to use if you read instructions.
All the best and good luck
Dogson

 

[Cheery-up Bear]

That's great. Thanks for the speedy reply. Good luck with yours too.

Did you mean yes I need the ammonia or yes I can use flakes instead?

I'm having so much fun!

 

[Dogson]

not sure about flakes or ammonia if you had it running since weds with established media have you tested yet? you could try a fish in cycle with established media a shoal of 6 or so white cloud minnows could do the job as they are hardy and inexspensive?

 

[Cheery-up Bear]

Thanks. I'm picking the filter media up on Wednesday - the tank is empty at the moment. I'm hoping to do a fishless cycle as I'd rather not risk any fish if there's an alternative. But if the media means I can do it safely with some fish in then I'd go for that option.

 

[Dogson]

fishless is always best and adding the mature media should speed things up alot, as long as you wack the heat up too. If the water has been de-chlorinated before you add it then your media bacteria should still thrive and reproduce. I'd probably not add ammonia in you case ( as i only had a small amount of mature media in mine I've chosen to add ammonia) run it for a week and add flake as you would a populated tank for a week or two,( you need to give the flake time to de-compose) test and see what you parameters are?
Let me know i'm ony a Newbie myself so maybe some other members may add there experiences if my advice is not 100% correct.

Liam

 

[Cheery-up Bear]

That's great. Thanks.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I would recommend that you leave your plants out until after the cycling. Leave the lights off too. Cycling this way will help to reduce the likelihood of algae appearing.

Dave.

 

[OldMan47]

Use the ammonia. It is much easier to control than producing ammonia with rotting fish food. If you just run a empty box of water with the new media, the bacteria in the media will gradually die off, they need to be fed their dose of ammonia.

 

[Cheery-up Bear]

That makes sense. I'll do that. Thanks all.

 

[Rediahs]

Use the ammonia. It is much easier to control than producing ammonia with rotting fish food. If you just run a empty box of water with the new media, the bacteria in the media will gradually die off, they need to be fed their dose of ammonia.

QFT (quoted for truth) - the advice you got earlier to use fish food or to just leave it alone is bad. The bacteria in the developed filter media need something to eat or they will die off (ammonia). And where you get your ammonia from - it's much easier to control, much cleaner, and smells a lot better to just use liquid ammonia. Flake food is messy, gets all rotten and smells bad. Just use ammonia. And certainly DON'T let it run empty for a week, or your mature media will be next to useless. The bacteria will all just die without a food source.