is it ok to turn off my filter at night during a fishless cycle

[cheddercheese10]

ive been told to just get it set up let the filter run for about a week and ive added tap safe i havent been adding amonnia i dont know how and i didnt know you have too

 

[cheddercheese10]

when i done the strip test all came back alright but PH and 1 more was 0.1 under

 

[fluttermoth]

What you've been told is the usual shop advice. They think that if they try and explain fishless cycling, people will give up on fishkeeping and they'll lose sales

A fishless cycle means growing a colony of good bacteria in the filter that, when you add fish, will 'eat' the fish's wastes and stop the water turning toxic.

If you don't add anything to the tank to feed those bacteria (which get into the tank as spores through the water and from the air), then you're not really doing a fishless cycle and the bacteria won't grow.

Of course your tests are coming back looking okay, because you're basically just testing your tap water!

Please have a read of some of the threads in the 'Cycle Your Tank' forum and hold off on getting any fish for the moment x

 

[cheddercheese10]

ok thanks but how do i do it coz i cant find anything im very confused and a bit paniky now

 

[cheddercheese10]

ok ive just been resding on wiki how and it says i have add fish flakes and test amonnia then test nirates ir something im really confused right now

 

[Essjay]

Please ignore anything that other sites say and read the guides on this one, they really are the best as they were written by someone who did some scientific research on the subject.
This is the way to do a fishless cycle http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

I see in another post that you have fish coming on Monday (in 3 days). Is there any way to delay this? Your tank will not be ready for fish for a few weeks yet.
If there is no way to delay the fish, you will be doing a fish-in cycle, and if the fish are a tankful, you have a hard time ahead of you. I suggest you get a proper, liquid reagent test kit before the fish arrive and spend some time reading these two links
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

And buy some live plants this weekend before the fish arrive, particularly floating ones, as they will help to keep the ammonia level under control.

 

[cheddercheese10]

i can delay the fish and im starting the cycle now ive added fish falkes and got a test kit so thank you

 

[cheddercheese10]

i really dont understand

 

[Essjay]

Fish flakes are not a good way of cycling the tank because you can't know just how much ammonia they make and therefore how many bacteria have grown. there may be enough for your fish, there may not. Using ammonia for a bottle is more accurate as you know exactly how much you have added.

Can you tell us what it is that you don't understand, then we can explain it better. The fishless cycling method on here is written so that you don't have to understand anything; you just need to be able to test the water and follow instructions.

In very basic terms, fish excrete ammonia, it is their version of urine, but ammonia burns fish's skin and gills. In the wild this ammonia would get washed away but it doesn't in a tank unless we do a water change. But there are bacteria that eat ammonia as food and their waste is nitrite. Nitrite is also dangerous for fish as it binds to their blood. But there is another species of bacteria which eats nitrite as food and they turn it into nitrate which isn't nearly as poisonous.
When we first set up a tank there are hardly any of these bacteria in the water so we have to grow more, and the process of growing them is called cycling. Like humans they can't grow without food. So we add some of their food in the form of ammonia from a bottle. This feeds the ammonia eaters so they can grow more of them, and they make nitrite so the nitrite eaters then have food and can grow more of them.
If fish are put in a tank which hasn't grown the bacteria, ammonia builds up and poisons the fish so we have to do lots and lots of water changes to remove the ammonia. Eventually enough of these ammonia grow to eat all the ammonia made by the fish. But the nitrite eaters can only get started once the ammonia eaters make some nitrite so the nitrite eaters lag behind. We have to continue doing water changes until there enough nitrite eaters in the tank.


Live plants will help as they use ammonia as plant fertiliser so the amount of ammonia won't get nearly as high as cycling with fish with no plants.

 

[cheddercheese10]

my dad has found out cos ive only got a little goldfish that i dont need to coz its only little and weve been told that you dont need to do it for goldfish ive only got a small tank

 

[Essjay]

I'm afraid your father has been told incorrectly. All fish need a cycled tank no matter what species they are or how big they are. If it was a shop that told him this, it is just another example of a shop giving out incorrect information, something they are notorious for doing.

Goldfish do not belong in small tanks because they are big fish. Common goldfish, those with normal tails, should be in a pond. Fancy goldfish, those with double tails, need a tank at least 100 litres (26.5 US gallons) for just one fish. And an extra 50 litres (13.5 gallons) for each additional fish.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/goldfish-for-beginners.417799/

Some quotes from that thread -
"Tank size is the biggest mistake that newcomers to goldfish make. Fancy goldfish need a tank that is a minimum of 100l for one fish, with an additional 50l for each additional fish (so, 150l for two fish, 200l for three and so on)."

"Common goldfish are really not suitable for the average home aquarium; they grow very large (many to over a foot long) and are quite messy, so realistically they need a tank of 5'/1.5m in length to have enough room, which is a much bigger tank than most people can manage. These fish are very much best left to the pond."

"Like all aquarium fish, goldfish need a properly 'cycled' filter for their tank to keep them healthy."

 

[cheddercheese10]

iv got a 28L tank and only getting 2 goldfish

 

[cheddercheese10]

ive done my filter cycle

 

[Essjay]

28 litresi is too small for avgoldfish. One goldfish needs a tank 4 times bigger.
It is suitable for a betta. One betta and nothing else, provided the tank has a heater.

And you cannot have done a cycle if you haven't been adding ammonia.

 

[cheddercheese10]

why is it to small and i added fish flakes and just left the filter run for about a week its 1 goldfish and when it gets big im making a pond with my dad in his garden within the next couple of weeks