Fishless Cycling - Everything You Wanted to know...

[arcab4]

To help beginners on the concept of Fishless Cycling, please refer to this article for more information:

http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/fishless-cycle/


everyone else, feel free to add your own comments to this thread.

This is a "sticky thread" meaning it'll always stay at the top of this section to help beginners and everyone else!

 

[SoulFish]

My cycle got stuck at the nitrite cycle where it peaked then never went down, to fix this do a 30% water change and it will finish within a few days

 

[Mike]

http://www.aquahobby.com/tips/fishless.html

that site seems to explain it well. i followed it and it worked fine.
~~Mike

 

[RedTurquoise]

Mike,
It is a good article however I do not agree 100% with the second last paragraph simply because when fishless cycling, the major advantage is to add all your fish at once. By adding ammonia, you will build a very large bio and if you only add a few fish in at a time, the bio will die off because there is not enough 'food' for all the bacteria.

Of course, when I fishless cycle, I add quite a bit of ammonia and after 3 weeks I do a water change. By that time, the ammonia would of completed its cycle and the nitrites would be maxed.

 

[Hazzamaya]

why would u want a fishless cycle when you can probably do it with a really cheap fish and really cheap fish food? On a siter called "Henry and Tammy's tropical fish aquariums"*twirlysmi has a little section on a plan for a half hour cycle so u can get ur fish in after half hour WOW amazing eh!

 

[RedTurquoise]

Simply Amazing! Absolutely incredible unfortuately it does not work! Sorry to break your bubble. Btw, I can not find this info on their site. Can you post a link or something? Thanks!

The point of fishless is again like I mentioned to be able to add all your fish plus not harm the fish. I would like to emphasise the last part of that sentence 'harm the fish'. Besides, fishless is even cheaper than with fish! A 4L bottle of ammonia that costs me $2 will last me 1000s of tanks. Beat that! *crazysmil

 

[Hazzamaya]

http://www.bluemoon.net/~tammy/profiles/ "henry and tammys tropical fish aquariums. *DRUMMER* *crazysmil There is the url

 

[Mike]

Red i also agree with you on that article i gave on the second last paragraph but i didnt pay attention to it i just dropped all my fish in there. i knew that was kinda stupid but i just ignored it.
~~Mike

 

[RedTurquoise]

Not a big deal! Happens to the best!

Hazzamaya,
Thanks for the link but I had already surfed their site. Lots of reading but skimming over the pages, I could not find the half hour cycling bit. Can you remember where it was?

 

[Eire]

I found it, RedTurquoise. As I read it, they lifted part of the media filter from an established tank, and put it into the new tank.

"My theory was that I could transplant some bacteria from the cycled 55 to the 30 long and that should cut the cycling time in half. Boy was I wrong, but wrong in a very good way! We bought a second Emperor 280 power filter for the 30 long so I could pirate the bio-wheel from the 55 to jump-start the cycle" (http://aquarium.bluemoon.net/tammy/version2.html ).

 

[RedTurquoise]

Thanks Eire! I would agree with that! Seeding a new tank does jump start the cycle but I was curious about the half hour cycle!

Vancouver? I'm here in Edmonton! *thumbsups

 

[Mike]

i just barely finished my fishless cycle in 7 days. best time ever. all i did was buy a 4L bottle of ammonia for 99 cents and put in 5ppm. remember i say ppm because there is no exact measurement for all types of ammonia since most of them have different concentrations of ammonia. by adding some nitrifying bacteria from Cycle and putting my biowheel mini penguin filter to this 10 gallon it made the ammonia drop within 3 days(the added capfulls of Cycle made the ammonia go higher up to 7-8ppm and made it take longer to get to 0). then i kept adding just a little ammonia to keep the new bacteria happy and eating. 3 days later i saw the nitrite peak begin to drop. the 6th day it dropped just a little but by the 7th day there was no nitrite at all and it was cycled.
~~Mike

 

[circuitdragon]

another beginner question after reading the articles on the cycle process...it mentions using gravel from an existing "good" tank. I have 3 bettas (all in seperate tanks) and I am wondering if they may be included as a way to help my new tank? Granted a single fish can't be keeping much of the bacteria alive, but would it be worth trying?

 

[Serpio]

circuitdragon: so you want to do a fish cycle with your bettas?

 

[circuitdragon]

lol...no, not a cycle for my bettas...I have a new 30 gallon I am trying to setup...my first real tank...so "trying" is the keyword here was only wondering if a bettas tank would have these "good" bacteria in the gravel, and if so...would it help start a bigger tank in its cycle? I added the ammonia(sp) tonight, so my clock is now running (crawling?)...heh

 

[michael]

Interesting article, however, do you know what is associated ammonia (NH4) and what is free ammonia (NH3)? I doubt the grocery label tells you that! This article should be in an Experimental Forum... Not this one.. ;(

 

[RedTurquoise]

Michael,
It does not matter if it is NH4 or NH3! The important thing that it is ammonia, not what form of ammonia. If you read the ammonia test kit booklet, it mentions that it tests NH and both NH3 and NH4! Free ammonia is usually associated with water treatment along with chlorine that bind together to form the famous Chloramines.

About the article being experimental? Highly unlikely as this method of cycle has been around for many years and has been gaining momentum now that the internet is being used as the best way to find info. Its not something new and not something experimental as many, many fish hobbyists and breeders are using it.

 

[michael]

RedTurquoise,

You are correct. I'm just too old-fashioned.

 

[RedTurquoise]

LOL! No big deal! I do appreciate when people question things rather than blindly jump into it! It is a good thing!

 

[cgoodloe]

pH help needed

I went to that Tammy site and saw that pH Down can stimulate algae. Just great. Wish they would have told me that on the package before I used the stuff. My pH is 8.2 according to PetsMart. It's so high that my readings on my test kit are always blue (7.6) and never change. How can I lower my pH without using the chemicals?? I have hard water (most of California does) that leaves lime and calcium deposits all over the sinks and pipes. What can I do about such water that will also put this stuff on my tanks? I've seen other people's tanks that have that yucky mineral deposit buildup all over the tank and filter and stuff. If you read my first post about being an newbie tank owner, you'll see more about my tank and conditions right now.