Here is what I did.
I started doing the regular fishless cycle everyone talks about. At day 3 I gave up. Heck we can get to the moon in 3 days, there has to be a better way to cycle.
I also heard about Bio-Spira from Marineland, but I did not want to risk my fish in case it did not work or I screwed up.
So I combined the normal fishless cycle with Bio-Spira.
I filled my new 46g bow front and set the temp on my 200w Ebo-Jager to 78 degrees.
I put some new gravel in the botton and fired up my new Emporer 400. I left the water left about 2 inches below the top of the tank so I would get lots of splash and bubbles. An air stone would work also but I did not have one. The point being, I wanted lots of O2 in the water for the bacteria.
I brought the ammonia level up to 5 ppm.
I bought 3 ounces of Bio-Spira for $19.00. 3 ounces treats 90 gallons. I put half of that in the tank.
At day 3 my nitrites were off my chart. I put the rest of the Bio-Spira in. Not sure if I needed to but I did not feel like letting it sit in my fridge forever.
At day 4 my nitrites were falling. My ammonia was almost down to zero, so I put a little bit of ammonia back in the tank, just enough to get it up to 1 ppm.
At day 5 my ammonia and nitrites were almost at zero and my nitrates were at 5 ppm.
I did a 40% water change and started transfering my plants, 15 fish and 2 frogs from my old 20g.
Its been 2 days, all is great, no lost fish.
Yes, all those plants were in my little 20g.
The 5 Day Fishless Cycle is a registered trademark of tomanystraydogs. All rights reserved.
I started doing the regular fishless cycle everyone talks about. At day 3 I gave up. Heck we can get to the moon in 3 days, there has to be a better way to cycle.
I also heard about Bio-Spira from Marineland, but I did not want to risk my fish in case it did not work or I screwed up.
So I combined the normal fishless cycle with Bio-Spira.
I filled my new 46g bow front and set the temp on my 200w Ebo-Jager to 78 degrees.
I put some new gravel in the botton and fired up my new Emporer 400. I left the water left about 2 inches below the top of the tank so I would get lots of splash and bubbles. An air stone would work also but I did not have one. The point being, I wanted lots of O2 in the water for the bacteria.
I brought the ammonia level up to 5 ppm.
I bought 3 ounces of Bio-Spira for $19.00. 3 ounces treats 90 gallons. I put half of that in the tank.
At day 3 my nitrites were off my chart. I put the rest of the Bio-Spira in. Not sure if I needed to but I did not feel like letting it sit in my fridge forever.
At day 4 my nitrites were falling. My ammonia was almost down to zero, so I put a little bit of ammonia back in the tank, just enough to get it up to 1 ppm.
At day 5 my ammonia and nitrites were almost at zero and my nitrates were at 5 ppm.
I did a 40% water change and started transfering my plants, 15 fish and 2 frogs from my old 20g.
Its been 2 days, all is great, no lost fish.
Yes, all those plants were in my little 20g.
The 5 Day Fishless Cycle is a registered trademark of tomanystraydogs. All rights reserved.
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