Thanks very much. Was not to sure about that. That’s good that the colony will be fine with cold water, and eventually being heated to the correct temperature for tropical.

there were a few post on people were boiling some water and mixing it with cold to get it some what get it close to the right range for the fish. That would be fine as well right?

Though I'd probably let the heater do the work for me.
Thanks again.

bump

I was going to, then didn't do the fishless cycle. The Pure Ammonia was VERY hard to find. We ended up just putting in BioSpira and then the next day 6 Zebra Danio. It was a 20 Gallon long and it know has 6 Zebra Danio, 7 Mickey Mouse Platies, and 4 Otocinclus. None have died so far and it is not a cruel way of doing cycling. We added tap water and about 70% Reverse Osmosis water.

Nobody has suggested that Biospira is cruel. But in most parts of the world (including the UK) you can't get it, so have to cycle either with ammonia or with fish without additions. The other non-cruel way of cycling with fish is if you can clone the filter media from an established tank.

No, I meant some people say that cycling with fish is cruel. But, for me it worked. Do they sell BioSpira online? I guess it is expensive because it has to be refrigerated.

aight- i am currently beginning to put ammonia in my new tank. i have to go to work, and the level is about .50ppm- will it be ok to sit at this til i get home? it won't mess anything up, will it?

Just going out to buy the necessary items needed to start this process

Very helpful!!!

It is, but you didn't cycle with fish. Biospira cycles the filter for you, you just need to add fish to keep it that way.

Ahhhhhh refreshing!
After reading some messed up things that made me tie my hands in knots and dance around the tank chanting old indian songs at dusk half naked, this really is as clear cut as iv seen! glad to have found such a usefull place and nice, friendly people!
Greg.

me too . cycling w/ fish is the biggest headache i ever got. . well wrote article . it is now bookmarked in my browser for future reference

Should be a sticky!!!!

I was wondering at the end of the cycle when you do the big water change do you put the fish straight in? how long can you leave between the water change and addin the fish? once you change the water you stop adding amonia so how long do you have before the bacteria start to die off, sounds stupid but i dont want to have to start all over, and i also dont want to rush and put the fish in too soon!!

Thanks for the info I think I may just give this a try as I haven't really decided on going with Platy fish and fellow friends or Barbs or Cichlids, although I think the latter is out due to tank size.

Should I wait until I get my ornaments and plants in the tank (in the mail) before I start this.

A chart with the current readings on my cycling tank:






Also picked this up on another forum and got permission to use it elsewhere:



“… This is something I think is necessary for people new to the aquarium hobby to fully understand:

Bacteria divide, and as such, for a while you will think nothing is happening. That is because the difference between 1,2,4,8,16,32,64 etc. is impossible to see. They will be consuming so small amount of ammonia that the fish will produce more than they can consume, and your ammonia will continue to go up.

BUT! They are dividing at/near the same rate the entire time (once every 12-24 hours is average). What that means is that (space and food not withstanding) it takes the same amount of time to go from 1 to 2 bacteria, as it does to go from 100,000 to 200,000. This is why patience is so necessary at the beginning, and why getting seed material is so vital.

If you start from scratch as you did and assume each bacterium has optimum conditions and divides every 12 hours, then in 1 week starting with 1 bacteria you would have ~ 4,100 bacteria (using 1 as an example though the fish will have many more on their body and fish waste). This is probably not enough to notice a difference if you had no fish in your tank. With fish, you would most definitely still see the ammonia level rise in the tank, and you would get discouraged.

Now however, if you got seed material and started with 1,000 bacteria (much more in reality), <under the> same conditions <in 7 days>, you would have 4.1 MILLION bacteria. 12 hours after that you would have 8.2 MILLION. In this case you would probably see the level stay the same or go down slightly at the end of the week, but by the next morning would see the level dropping quickly.

Both situations described above are the SAME, the only difference is the amount of bacteria you start with.

So the point of this whole post was to show why we say don't get discouraged and "start over", and when we say stuff is happening in the tank, we mean it really is.�

-7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Forum.
7/5/06


Really excellent advice for cycling both with and without fish!!


-Don T.

Once your done the fishless cycle, it stated that you will have tones of brown algae and cloudy water....do you need to do something further at this point to clean that or will it clear itself? Can the fish go in when its in this state?

At the end of the fishless you do a big water change- but that's to dilute the nitrates. The cloudy water and brown algae are no threat to the fish- indeed, some fish will eat the algae. And it may never happen- the tank I just cycled fishless grew no algae, much to the disgust of my 2 bristlenose plecs.

Unfortunately, I haven't been very active in the forum in a few months but I'm glad to see this thread is still helping people. I had hoped it would get pinned when I wrote it and several people even posted in the "Pin Me" Thread in the "Board Announcements & Suggestions" section but it never happened. I just glad it keeps making it's way back to the first page.

I've been cycling a rio 125 for about 5 days now. From about day 2 NH4 levels would drop from about 6ppm to 0 in less than 18 hours (going to bed to coming back from work)

I've put this down to using water and stones and one of the filter pads from the tank in my bedroom with 2 ranchu in and them being very mucky pups...

should I keep raising the NH4 to 6pm or now drop it down to 3 or 4..?

the nitrate and nitrite levels are very very high still. 50 - 100 and about 3.0

I'm using nutrafin liquid test.

thanks,


dave.