30g Tank Is Fully And Ready To Cycle...but I'm Confused!

[pimp4cheddar]

I've set everything up. I built my stand, set my rocks, filled the tank with water, installed the heater and filter...but now I must cycle...

I added a declorinator to the water the first night and it's been just been sitting there with the filter running for 2 days.

I'm lost on how to cycle...I've read all the sticky threads but I don't understand it...

I'm going to do the Add&Wait method...but I'm lost as to how much to add and when to add it. Also, is there a certain test kit or ammonia I want to buy?



Thanks,

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you need to have (ideally) a full liquid-based test kit and you need to have the right type of ammonia.

Many of us here, including me, use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, which has ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and two pH tests. There is also a Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit that is reported to be good. Probably one of these two is the best as a few others have had problems reported here.

The ammonia is very important and sometimes very difficult to find. It needs to be pure, clear aqueous ammonia (normally ammonia is a gas, but what we're talking about here is typically 5 or 10% ammonia in water and it looks completely clear) It must have no fragrances or soaps in it and believe me, it is very common for them to put these in and not tell you. One important thing is to do a shake test and make sure it doesn't foam. It should just form some bubbles as if it were water when you shake it. If it foams very much then it has soap in it. I was lucky, I found a whole quart of it in a clear plastic bottle in my grocery store and it was super cheap, less than a buck.

You also need a way to measure ammonia into your tank and to put the right amount of test water into the test tubes in the test kits. I did this with two little glass droppers that I got at a pharmacy. Here on TFF I later read that there is a better way. You can usually find syringes with amount markings in a pharmacy. With a syringe you can draw in, say, 5 millilitres of water from the tank and squirt it right in the test tube and have the right amount. Or you can squirt the right amount of ammonia into the tank.

It is important to buy two at least of whatever you get and then mark and always use one for the ammonia only and one for the water only and don't get them mixed up. Of course you could rinse them each time but this would be a pain.

These are the first most important things I can think of for you at this time... Oh, and I'm assuming you have a notebook to serve as your logbook, right?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes as WD said that's your shopping list, a basic run down of the add and wait method is as follows

- you add enough ammonia to top the tank up to 5ppm of ammonia (which you can confirm with your test kit)
- then every day from that point on you test the water for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If you can do this every 12 hours then that's best
- after maybe 3/4 days (sometimes more sometimes less, timing is very varied) the ammonia will start to drop down, you keep monitoring it every day until it drops down to 0ppm
- then you top it back up to 5ppm of ammonia
- test again every day, whenever it drops down to 0 you top it back up to 5 again
- after maybe a couple of weeks you'll start to see that ammonia is dropping every day or every other day and the nitrite will start to rise, just keep going at this point although if nitrite goes off the scale you may want to do a water change, best to just monitor it and give us a shout if you're not sure and we'll advise
- then after a few weeks the nitrite will start to fall, this means you are nearly done, again keep adding the 5ppm of ammonia, by this time it'll need adding every day
- then you just keep adding and testing until you get to the point where 12 hours after adding ammonia both ammonia and nitrite read 0
- then you add 5ppm of ammonia every day for a week and keep testing at the 12 hr mark to make sure it can do this every day, if all is well and you're consistently getting 0,0 for ammonia and nitrite at the 12 hr mark then do a 90% water change and add around three quarters of your final stocking to the tank the same day.

there's more to it than that which is all in the pinned topic, but that's the basic jist, perhaps having the simple version first may help you understand the full version in rdd's pin?!

 

[waterdrop]

just a couple of points MW (sorry, know you were trying to do a short summary, and its a really good one and all...)

On step 2 there where you run the tests every day:

I'd say the nitrate (NO3) test is not necessarily needed every day, especially since its usually hard to do (agree?)

On step 5 where you say "test again every day, whenever it drops down to 0 you top it back up to 5 again":

You top it back up to 5 again, but only once each 24 hours.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pimp4cheddar]

- then you add 5ppm of ammonia every day for a week and keep testing at the 12 hr mark to make sure it can do this every day, if all is well and you're consistently getting 0,0 for ammonia and nitrite at the 12 hr mark then do a 90% water change and add around three quarters of your final stocking to the tank the same day.

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to buy the ammonia and test kit RIGHT NOW...I can't believe I have to work so hard for so long before I can even add fish...GEEZ

1 question...you said do a 90% water change and add around three quarters of your final stocking - what does that mean...that after it's 0,0 for ammonia and nitrate...I have to remove almost all the water? Do I add regular water or water with a declorinator? Also, what's my final stocking?

Thanks,

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, during fishless cycling you can think of your tank water as a "soup" to be optimized to grow bacteria, not fish.

When you are done with fishless cycling, you plan for your "switchover day."

On the same day, you siphon out most (90%) of the water (basically a large water change).. You add back in tap water with the correct amount of conditioner and you can roughly temperature match it (I just take a cup of the old tank water to the faucet and stick my hand in it and then keep adjusting the hot/cold tap until I think it roughly matches temperature.) Turn back on your filter and heater since you will probably have turned them off for a 90% water change.

Then you add fish (you have to plan this out depending on fish availability), usually based on your planned partial stocking of your most hardy fish. Its important for the fish to get in there the same day so they will create ammonia to feed the bacteria, which you are no longer feeding manually. Does that make sense?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just a couple of points MW (sorry, know you were trying to do a short summary, and its a really good one and all...)

On step 2 there where you run the tests every day:

I'd say the nitrate (NO3) test is not necessarily needed every day, especially since its usually hard to do (agree?)

On step 5 where you say "test again every day, whenever it drops down to 0 you top it back up to 5 again":

You top it back up to 5 again, but only once each 24 hours.

~~waterdrop~~

no youre quite right on first points, i didn't wanna confuse things by saying about the nitrate test. your quite right to point out about the 24 hrs, should have said that one.