Fishless cycle

[JWright]

What's everyone's opinion? I'm a big fan of the proccess, it's an easy way to save our aquatic friends from a lot of stress.

Not trying to blow my own horn, but I wrote a quick summary of the process (I know, there are already hundreds out there, but I was bored). This was kind of directed towards people new to the hobby, so you can skip over the first part if you like.

http://www.geocities.com/joshsfish/fishless.html

Josh

 

[fishboy]

I paticulary think that fish cycle is the easiest. ;D But, then again i would rather not put the fish under stress. Hmmmmmmmm But, i think i would go with the fishless cycle

 

[ryanp15]

Nice article. I agree with you. This way you can save the fish from much uneeded stress. It's definitly the way to go. ;D

 

[Cillana]

I used fishless cycling for my newest tank, a 55 gallon. It worked great! I was really useful because I already had most of the fish that I wanted to put in it. I combined my 20 and 10 gallon communities in it and added a few more fish. It took only 2 weeks to cycle and after that I could put all my fish in at once and everyone did great.

 

[ronrca]

I would recommend the fishless cycle to everyone that is starting a new tank. I like the idea of building a big bacteria culture that can support many fish right away.

 

[Somonas]

I enjoyed fishless cycling, but mine was quite slow because I didn't seed anything.

In my opinion once you cycle your first tank, whether it's fishless or not, you don't need to cycle any subsequent tanks - just seed them with some filter material.  You can add a bit of ammonia for the first few days just to give the bacteria an extra boost.

What I am trying to say is that it's possible to do instant cycles if you have lots of established filter material around - some folks actually use a second filter in their main tank just to store filter material for future tanks (I do)

 

[madpad]

With my present situation i would say no.

 

[sillypiggi]

Here is a good website for fishless cycle. It gives out quite a few tips~

http://www.xs.edu.ph/~home/noele/aqua/fishless.html

 

[Cillana]

Yeah I have two spare 10 gallons that I sometimes set up for quarantine or fry tanks. I just use about 8 gallons from an established tank. Voila! Instant cycled tank. But I couldn't do that with my 55 gallon because it was almost 3 times bigger than my previously largest tank.

When I set up the 55 gallon, I used a filter that had been in my 20 gallon for awhile and put it in the 55. I also took the sponge filter from my fry tank and squeezed it out in the 55.

 

[themask89]

As a newbie, I still can't understand articles about this fishless cycle that you're all talking about.

Can someone kindly explain to me the whole process of the fishless cycle in layman term's to me?

 

[JWright]

Fishless cycle uses ammonia that you can buy at the store to simulate fish. I set out, when writing that thing up above, to write something that would be easy for a beginning fishkeeper to understand. It's still pretty much in the rouhg, and any suggestions you could make would be appreciated.

Josh

 

[JWright]

Cillana, have you really been sucessful just transfering water? You aren't moving any bacteria by doing this...

madpad-Why "no"?

Josh

 

[Fish Monger]

Antichrist: Here's a lesson in nature for ya.  When you first set up a tank, there are no bacteria established in it to break down the ammonia that is in the fishes waste (poop).  Ammonia is harmful, even deadly in high enough concentrations, to fish, and at the very least causes them undue stress while the bacteria gets a foothold.

But it's not over.  The ammonia devouring bacteria converts the ammonia into Nitrite, a still rather harmful substance, though less harmful to fish than Ammonia.  Don't be fooled, Nitrite can/will kill your fish, or at the very least, cause them undue stress.

After the nitrite levels begin to build up, a second bacteria starts to settle in, one that converts these nitrites to nitrates, which are signifigantly less toxic to fishes.

Now, when you read his article, you should have something of a basic understanding of what "Cycling" is.  It's really best if you can do it without fishes.  Hope I was of help. ;D

 

[sillypiggi]

yal~ where can I find a good source of Ammonia? I bought Albertson's Simply Clean Clear Ammonia today, but I am not sure I can use it because it produces foam when I shake the bottle (some say it's an indication of having surfactants in the solution). Please help!!!!

 

[Cillana]

Are you sure there's no bacteria in the water? Why else would it work?

 

[JWright]

The bacteria live on surfaces, that's why we use filter media with lots of surface area as our biological filter media.

Did you use gravel vac water? If so, it's possible you sucked up some bacteria there.

Josh