Few questions about cycling....

[Sye]

I have just started cycling(fishless) my 50g and are a little unsure on a few things....

1. Do I need to have the heater/light/filter on(seams no point as there isn’t any fish in there!?)?

2. Do I need fish waste for the beneficial bacteria to grow?

3. Do I need to add any kind of supplement to the water apart from dechlorinator?

4. On average how long will it be before I can start introducing fish?

 

[Sye]

Just one more thing I forgot

How long before until I can add live plants, do i need the nitrate to build up a little?

 

[Lithril]

Fishless Cycling 1

Fishless Cycling 2

Ok first things first have a quick read of the above articles to give you a general knowledge. Its essential that your filter is left on as this will provide a flow of water which will carry the ammonia etc into the filter so that the bacteria can breed.

You will need a source of ammonia now as your fishless cycling (the fishies will thank you for it) this can either be neat ammonia (unperfumed and with no additives, can often be bought from local hardware stores, usually the cheapest type of ammonia on sale); fish food can also be used as this will break down in to ammonia; also some people have said urine will work as again there is urea and also good 'ol ammonia.

Which ever method you use you'll need to add some each day and monitor the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

The beauty with this technique is that its so much faster than the traditional way of adding fish and can often be complete in a matter of 2weeks instead of 2-3 months. If you want to speed the process up try can get some gravel, ornaments, filter sponge etc or anything from an established tank (except for the fish) sometimes your lfs will help with this.

No supplements needed although some people will add bacteria like biospira (can be bought in some lfs) to start it.

Good luck but the links at the top should explain things much better than I can.

 

[Lithril]

Live plants should be able to go into the tank straight away as they'll also use the ammonia in the absence of nitrate.

 

[Alien Anna]

Please follow the link in my sig for an article on the background to cycling a tank.

1. Do I need to have the heater/light/filter on(seams no point as there isn’t any fish in there!?)?

The filter is one of the places your beneficial bacteria (that turn ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate) can grow and it needs to be on to keep a good supply of oxygenated water over those bacteria.

A warmer tank will cycle faster and the bacteria establish themselves much quicker. A light is only necessary if you have plants.

2. Do I need fish waste for the beneficial bacteria to grow?

Good question, which hopefully you should have answered if you'd followed the links on Fishless Cycling.

3. Do I need to add any kind of supplement to the water apart from dechlorinator?

I'd avoid all chemicals except a good dechlorinator. Make sure it removes chloramines as well as chlorine.

4. On average how long will it be before I can start introducing fish?

Fishless cycling (without any "seeding" from already established tanks) usually takes 2-3 weeks. Cycling with fish can take 2-3 months or longer.

 

[Sye]

also some people have said urine will work as again there is urea and also good 'ol ammonia.

LOL, cant help but chuckle at the thought of takeing a leak in the fish tank.



I have a 20g established, if I was to take 1/4 of the gravel out and swap it with gravel out my new tank that would speed things up yeh? But would it affect the 20g?

How much ammonia would I need to add per day? Where by in a supermarket would I find it?

 

[Lithril]

Yeah I must admit have tried taking a leak in the tank yet

Would be fine taking a couple of handfuls of gravel out of your 20gal and would definately speed up the process.

I'm lucky in the fact that I can get ammonia from work so havent had to go looking your supermarket may sell it just make sure that its got no additives or perfumes.