Fishless Cycling - Everything You Wanted to know...

[Prune Tracy]

The dumbest question is the question never asked.

This is the nitrogen cycle starting with what you put in and ending with what you take out...

Food --> Fish --> Waste/Ammonia(NH3..?) --> Nitrite(NO2) --> Nitrate(NO3) --> Plants/Water changes

Don't use test strips, they're inaccurate and the chemistry angle of liquid kits is more fun anyway.

Try reading over the posts again and maybe find some other guides on other sites. Three or four different runthroughs should make it more clear to you. That said, you can put anything inorganic in your tank pre-cycle. You can add plants but they will slow you down and some won't appreciate the ammonia. Keep in mind that while you're doing your cycle the tank is going to be so toxic that a hardy fish might last five minutes in there.

During your cycle your objective will be to maintain an ammonia concentration of 5ppm. This may mean adding ammonia on a daily basis, it may mean avoiding the tank for days, it depends on the speed at which your particular tank is going to cycle.

There will be three successive spikes in your cycle. Ammonia will be the first to spike as you add it in. Eventually your daily ammonia will be entirely consumed in a 24 hour period, thus ending the first spike. This does not mean that you should stop adding ammonia. The second spike will be your nitrIte spike. This will climb higher than the ammonia spike and eventually fall to 0 on it's own. The final spike is the NitrAte spike. As nitrite is processed by bacteria nitrate is formed. When the second spike is finished you should wait for a day or two and then perform a humongoid water change to remove the massive ammount of bacterial toxins in your tank, thus ending the third spike. Is spike never actually falls but is periodically reduced as you perform regular water changes.

Now you have baterial colonies established. Stock big or stock small but be aware that the bacteria will adjust and die off to a level appropriate for the ammount of fish waste in the tank. Once you've initially stocked the tank future stockings should be small, I think.

 

[Flex26]

Good synopsis, PT!!

Just remember once ammonia drops to zero, you are adding ammonia until you did that "humongoid" water change (as Prune Tracy elequently suggested ).

Some people say add ammonia daily throughout the cycle (ammonia spike included). IMO and IME, I do not condone this practice as it seems to cause many complications with ammonia levels.

 

[wanttogetfish]

ok i think i got it ill read thru things a few more times and like you said it should start making complete sense im gonna attempt to possibly start a tank probably next month gives me plenty of time to research more and think more and understand so thank you all for info and putting up with all my questions

 

[styxx1]

Sounds about right

I think that anything with beneficial bateria would be helpful, but it seems like there's little of it in gravel itself (unless you have live sand or some other type of fine grain substrate)...but I could very well be wrong.

I was really impatient when it came to cycling my tank and its been two weeks and finally I saw my Nitrites spike today and it was...ahem...a...glorius sight (please excuse me, I'm overclempt)

 

[Kodachrome]

Just in the process of cycling

Hi Folks...I am just in the process of making 30 gallons of water fish friendly. A couple of my sceptical fish friends thought I should put a page together actually showing what I was doing. I have a couple of photographs of the process to date.

My question is should I be doing water changes to make room for the nitrate byproduct...I have readings at the top of the scale for nitrate?

My page is...

http://www.theoaks.ca/fishlesscycle.htm

Really enjoying the information on this board...Tony

 

[ladyhawk]

I think one link

If I remember right one of the links back on the 1st page of this thread explains that the reason we do a 60-80% water change once the Amonnia and NitrIte are at 0 ppm is to lower the NitrAte value.

Most people strive for under 40 ppm NitrAte in a freash water aet up. Hope that helps

 

[rgdwar1]

I strive for a 0.00 ammonioa level in my fishless cycling adventure. lol...not happening yet. Must wait...must wait...must wait...

 

[rgdwar1]

I strive for a 0.00 ammonioa level in my fishless cycling adventure. lol...not happening yet. Must wait...must wait...must wait...

 

[RedTurquoise]

When to do a water change during the fishless cycle?
When you have had nitrite level for around 2-3 weeks and the nitrate level is very high or even off the scale. During the fishless cycle, it is very important to keep adding ammonia. How often will depend on how quickly the ammonia level falls to 0 again. Dont add ammonia everyday if you dont need to.

 

[rgdwar1]

I haven't added ammonia in 6 days. Just today it dropped to 4. Wondering if my water conditioner is causing the ammonia to stay, hmmm.....

 

[RedTurquoise]

It depends if you have chloramines or not. The dechlors will break the bond between the chlorine and ammonia.

If your ammonia isnt gone after 6 days, you may put a lot in to begin with. I would not worry about it now, just keeping watching it.

 

[Fishrockmysox]

That article is a good one for cycling I like it!! lol

I also do cycling 7-10 days and whil cycling I condition the water 2 times over the whole period. I find my fish are more happy fish if I do it.

 

[ERN02]

Ammonia still over 5ppm after 2 weeks

We're having trouble with the first part of cycling our new 6-gallon tank. I imagine we just need to keep being patient, but I thought I'd ask all you experts if we are missing something. We were following some fishless cycling instructions and adding ammonia every day, which gave us a major overdose of ammonia. We didn't really figure this out for a week after we started. Once we figured it out, we followed some good advice from this forum and did a major water change, about 70%. This brought our ammonia level down somewhat to what looks like about 6ppm now. It's been this way for 7 days now. No fluctuations. I finally got impatient and did a nitrite test, and we do have .25 in the tank. When will the ammonia level drop? Are we on the right track?

We do have 1ppm ammonia in our tap water, by the way, and nitrates measure 20. Once we are cycled, will we have to add a ammonia detoxifier to our water along with the dechlor when we do water changes?

Thanks!

 

[ERN02]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we are keeping the tank nice and warm, at about 84 degrees.

And the amount of ammonia we were adding everyday in the first week+ was the amount it took to get to 5ppm on that very first day we added it.

I think that's it!

 

[JWright]

Sounds like you're at the very beginning of your nitrite spike.

At extremely high ammonia levels, the cycle will grind to a halt, so that's likely what happened to you.

Give it time, it sounds like you're very much on the right track.

~JW

 

[FroggyFox]

I agree, it sounds like you're on the right track. I dont blame ya for being a teeny bit impatient At least with a few nitrites you know things are progressing. Just to make sure, you do have a filter running on the tank right? so there is some water movement? And you answered what I was going to ask about the temperature... Did you make sure and dechlorinate the water that you have in there now even though you're only cycling? If the answer to those are "yes" then the only thing I can think of to make it go a little faster would be to find something to seed it with...get some filter squeezings from a friend's tank or maybe a tiny bit of gravel from a local fish store that uses undergravel filters (put it in some pantyhose and either in your filter or in the water flow somehow).

Also, to answer your question about ammonia detoxifier, no. When your tank is cycling normally the ammonia in your tap water should be neutralized in the tank. The 20ppm of nitrates in tap water could be a little more worrisome, might cause some algae issues. The only thing you could do though would be to plant the tank relatively heavily or buy your water change water from somewhere that sells RO water (some fish stores do) or invest in an RO unit yourself. Probably not worth it for a smaller tank like yours, but would probably be something to think about if you were going to get a larger tank.

Good Luck!

 

[ERN02]

Thanks all. Yes, we do have a filter running, and yes we did dechlor the water before adding to the tank (and on the filter changes). I don't have access to "seed" bacteria unfortunately.

We checked the nitrites this morning and they are the same place they were three days ago. But it's encouraging to hear y'all say that we are on the right track. My daughter is anxious to get her fish (this was a Christmas present). We're planning on one betta and think he'll be happy with this size tank.

I'll have to think about that nitrate/RO water issue some....

 

[ERN02]

Well, everything is still as it was the last time I wrote. So, I thought I'd check in again and still make sure we're doing everything right. In summary, we set up our 6-gal tank and first added ammonia on Dec. 19. By Dec. 28, we realized that we were overdosing the tank with ammonia (adding a little every day) and we did a major water change, about 70%. The ammonia has measured at about 6-7ppm since (and we haven't added any more, of course). We first tested nitrites on Jan. 1 and they have been .5ppm since then. Actually, when I tested yesterday, it looked a little bit darker. We've consistently kept the temp at 82-86 degrees.

Should we try to do another water change, or will that flush out the bacteria that is already growing? Or should we keep sticking with it? It's been three weeks since that major water change and 4-1/2 since we first set up the tank, so it's really taking a long time.....

 

[FroggyFox]

Man...thats a tough one. I guess if it was my tank I would do as close to a 100% change as possible, (make sure the water you're putting in is not a drastically hot or cold temperature, and has been dechlorinated, have your filter off while you're re-filling), and then add in A TINY BIT of ammonia (we're talkin a few drops), let it sit for a couple of HOURS and then test...then repeat until your tank is no more than like 4 ppm. Some of those test kits only go up to like 8ppm, so if you're reading 7 or 8 its possible that its a lot higher than that. Even though, if that was the case I would still have expected to see more movement.

Have you tested your nitrates? Have you taken a sample of your water to a local store to test and see what their test kits say? I mean could there be something wrong with your test kits?

If all else fails I think I'd just make a point of investing in some biospira...at some point its worth taking the proven shortcut.

 

[SANND]

I read somewhere that excessive amounts of ammonia can stall your cycle because too much ammonia will burn the bacteria. I'll try to find that link for you and post it. Since you're only 3 weeks in, I think I'd do a water change and get the ammonia down to 5ppm. Keep in mind that sometimes cycles can take longer than a month. I've read accounts of people waiting as long as 3 months for their fishless cycle to finish.