doresy
Sometimes Right, Sometimes Wrong but ALWAYS certai
I recently sold a fish tank and emailed (by request) this guide to the buyer on the Fishless Cycle Process. What do you think as a non scientifically written and easy to follow article? (They never even acknowledged it!!)
Hi and thank you for buying my tank. As a bonus I will give you some steps which hopefully, if followed, will prevent you from re-selling it again after failure!
In the old days you got a tank, filled it with water, left it for a week or so before adding fish then watching them die one by one. If you did the odd partial water change then this slowed down the process but it still came to the same conclusion.
Result, all over the world there lay algae encrusted fish tanks in back gardens housing mosquito larvae.
Well no more. Relatively new to fish keeping is something called a fishless cycle.
The Cycle part refers to the nitrogen cycle which I will explain in a non scientific way.
Basically its this
Ammonia > Nitrite > Nitrate (please be aware that there is only i and an a difference between the second 2 but they are very different to the fish.
Ammonia comes from fish waste and rotting food/plant matter. This is a killer for fish and there is no safe level. It MUST be zero at all times when fish are added.
Nitrite is the waste product produced by the bacteria that process the ammonia and is equally harmful to fish and levels again MUST be zero at all times when fish are added.
Finally Nitrate. This is the waste product of the bacteria that processes the nitrite and this can be tolerated by fish up to 100ppm (parts per million) but a safe level of 40ppm is considered the ideal maximum.
Ok so again, basically ammonia is eaten by naturally formed, friendly bacteria but this bacteria produces a waste called nitrite. Then a different kind of bacteria eats the nitrite but that too produces a waste called Nitrate. There is no naturally formed bacterium that eats this but plants do to a degree. This is why we do a partial water change of 25-30% on a weekly or fortnightly basis depending on stocking levels to dilute this less harmful toxin.
Right. The Fishless Cycle. The clue is in the title. We are replicating the cycle without using fish. Good for us and good for the fish!
Fill your tank with water while adding a dechlorinator*. Amount to add will be on the bottle based on the volume of water your tank will hold allowing for displacement of substrate and decorations.
*The dechlorinator takes out the chlorine which would otherwise kill all the friendly bacteria that you are trying to create. This process in instantaneous.
After leaving for 10 minutes for the heater glass to acclimatise or so switch on the heater and filter. The temperature should be around 30*.
Now to start the Cycle.
Add pure ammonia solution (£1.99 from Homebase) to the water. Approx 6ml for 120lts of water. Thats it!
You now need to purchase a water testing kit. The one that I and most other fish-keepers recommend is the API Freshwater Master Kit (liquid) which although a little expensive it will give you hundreds of accurate tests of all the major levels.
At this stage you only want to test for ammonia which should be at between 4-6ppm.
It will take about 2 weeks before anything happens but eventually the ammonia should start to drop as the bacteria that processes it begins to form. (If you can obtain some filter media from an established filter then this will help speed up this part of the cycle)
When it drops to about .25ppm put in another dose of ammonia and do a test for NITRITE. A small level should now start to show.
Now you can start to test daily for both ammonia and nitrite. Each time the ammonia level drops to .25 (over a few days) then a dose of ammonia should be added.
You are now feeding the ammonia processing bacteria a keeping it alive. Because of this a level of nitrite will be produced and this level will go sky high over the next few weeks!
Now then, this is where patience is required, the bacteria that processes the nitrite takes approximately twice as long to form as the ammonia bacteria did so during this time the level will go very high. (In fact the colour of the test will go purple even before you shake the tube) This is known as the nitrite spike
When you get to the stage where you add ammonia in the morning (or evening) and it has returned to zero within 24 hours the nitrite will be starting to drop too. (you are nearly there!)
Eventually the ammonia level will go from 5ppm to zero in 8-12 hours but you will remain to show a low level of nitrite. Its frustrating but keep going and add the ammonia!
One day, all of a sudden the nitrite will give a (sky blue) zero reading and you are there!!!
To be on the safe side continue to add the daily dose of ammonia and test after 12 hours to make sure you get a zero-zero reading for ammonia and nitrite for a few more days. If so you tank is now Cycled and stable.
Now then, VERY IMPORTANT. You have spent all this time and trouble cultivating all this friendly bacteria so now you want to keep it.
It will start to die very quickly if it is not fed so you need to either keep up the adding ammonia or add fish (NOT BOTH!!!!)
This part needs to be understood….During the Fishless Cycle process the NITRATE (notice the difference) has gone to a very high level which is ok but this must be lowered JUST A FEW HOURS (12 Max) BEFORE ADDING FISH. To do this you must COMPLETELY remove ALL the water (dont worry about what is in the gravel or filter) and replace it with new (and dechlorinated) water and allow the temperature to come up again (some warm water can be added too)
Now for the fish. Again this part must be understood. What you have done during the fishless cycle is to cultivate within the filter the amount of bacteria required to cope with the waste from the maximum amount of fish that can be added to that tank.
This means that you should add (but only at this stage) most of the fish you intent to keep all at once. In that way the waste they produce will be enough to keep all the bacteria alive. Any fish you add in the future should then be added only a couple at any one time to allow the bacteria to rise and cope.
You can, of course just add half a dozen or so at the beginning and the bacteria level will drop just to cope with them. If you do this though remember that again you will now only be able to add a few fish at a time and at least a week apart to allow the bacteria level to rise.
Either way, if you have followed these instruction to the letter then you will be able to look forward to success in fish keeping and very soon will be looking for a second and probable larger tank.
Points to remember…..
You only completely change all the water at the end of the cycling process to rid the tank of the extreme level of nitrate. Your weekly or fortnightly partial water changes need only be 25-30%. Dechlorinated water only at all times!
Gently squeeze only half the filter media (top level) at water change time and do it in OLD TANK WATER THAT YOU HAVE SIPHONED OUT. Next time do the other half. The lower level only needs doing when it looks really clogged but do check it each time.
During the cycling and when you do the first and complete water change the filter does NOT need any cleaning or disturbing.
During the cycling you can freely add and rearrange the decorations and add plants but do not add any Bogwood as this will lower the PH level and stall the cycle process. (you can add wood later if you like) Remember to rinse hands before putting them in the tank being careful not to use soap (especially anti bacterial!)
Feel free to ask any questions if you are unsure of my ramblings…..good luck!
Hi and thank you for buying my tank. As a bonus I will give you some steps which hopefully, if followed, will prevent you from re-selling it again after failure!
In the old days you got a tank, filled it with water, left it for a week or so before adding fish then watching them die one by one. If you did the odd partial water change then this slowed down the process but it still came to the same conclusion.
Result, all over the world there lay algae encrusted fish tanks in back gardens housing mosquito larvae.
Well no more. Relatively new to fish keeping is something called a fishless cycle.
The Cycle part refers to the nitrogen cycle which I will explain in a non scientific way.
Basically its this
Ammonia > Nitrite > Nitrate (please be aware that there is only i and an a difference between the second 2 but they are very different to the fish.
Ammonia comes from fish waste and rotting food/plant matter. This is a killer for fish and there is no safe level. It MUST be zero at all times when fish are added.
Nitrite is the waste product produced by the bacteria that process the ammonia and is equally harmful to fish and levels again MUST be zero at all times when fish are added.
Finally Nitrate. This is the waste product of the bacteria that processes the nitrite and this can be tolerated by fish up to 100ppm (parts per million) but a safe level of 40ppm is considered the ideal maximum.
Ok so again, basically ammonia is eaten by naturally formed, friendly bacteria but this bacteria produces a waste called nitrite. Then a different kind of bacteria eats the nitrite but that too produces a waste called Nitrate. There is no naturally formed bacterium that eats this but plants do to a degree. This is why we do a partial water change of 25-30% on a weekly or fortnightly basis depending on stocking levels to dilute this less harmful toxin.
Right. The Fishless Cycle. The clue is in the title. We are replicating the cycle without using fish. Good for us and good for the fish!
Fill your tank with water while adding a dechlorinator*. Amount to add will be on the bottle based on the volume of water your tank will hold allowing for displacement of substrate and decorations.
*The dechlorinator takes out the chlorine which would otherwise kill all the friendly bacteria that you are trying to create. This process in instantaneous.
After leaving for 10 minutes for the heater glass to acclimatise or so switch on the heater and filter. The temperature should be around 30*.
Now to start the Cycle.
Add pure ammonia solution (£1.99 from Homebase) to the water. Approx 6ml for 120lts of water. Thats it!
You now need to purchase a water testing kit. The one that I and most other fish-keepers recommend is the API Freshwater Master Kit (liquid) which although a little expensive it will give you hundreds of accurate tests of all the major levels.
At this stage you only want to test for ammonia which should be at between 4-6ppm.
It will take about 2 weeks before anything happens but eventually the ammonia should start to drop as the bacteria that processes it begins to form. (If you can obtain some filter media from an established filter then this will help speed up this part of the cycle)
When it drops to about .25ppm put in another dose of ammonia and do a test for NITRITE. A small level should now start to show.
Now you can start to test daily for both ammonia and nitrite. Each time the ammonia level drops to .25 (over a few days) then a dose of ammonia should be added.
You are now feeding the ammonia processing bacteria a keeping it alive. Because of this a level of nitrite will be produced and this level will go sky high over the next few weeks!
Now then, this is where patience is required, the bacteria that processes the nitrite takes approximately twice as long to form as the ammonia bacteria did so during this time the level will go very high. (In fact the colour of the test will go purple even before you shake the tube) This is known as the nitrite spike
When you get to the stage where you add ammonia in the morning (or evening) and it has returned to zero within 24 hours the nitrite will be starting to drop too. (you are nearly there!)
Eventually the ammonia level will go from 5ppm to zero in 8-12 hours but you will remain to show a low level of nitrite. Its frustrating but keep going and add the ammonia!
One day, all of a sudden the nitrite will give a (sky blue) zero reading and you are there!!!
To be on the safe side continue to add the daily dose of ammonia and test after 12 hours to make sure you get a zero-zero reading for ammonia and nitrite for a few more days. If so you tank is now Cycled and stable.
Now then, VERY IMPORTANT. You have spent all this time and trouble cultivating all this friendly bacteria so now you want to keep it.
It will start to die very quickly if it is not fed so you need to either keep up the adding ammonia or add fish (NOT BOTH!!!!)
This part needs to be understood….During the Fishless Cycle process the NITRATE (notice the difference) has gone to a very high level which is ok but this must be lowered JUST A FEW HOURS (12 Max) BEFORE ADDING FISH. To do this you must COMPLETELY remove ALL the water (dont worry about what is in the gravel or filter) and replace it with new (and dechlorinated) water and allow the temperature to come up again (some warm water can be added too)
Now for the fish. Again this part must be understood. What you have done during the fishless cycle is to cultivate within the filter the amount of bacteria required to cope with the waste from the maximum amount of fish that can be added to that tank.
This means that you should add (but only at this stage) most of the fish you intent to keep all at once. In that way the waste they produce will be enough to keep all the bacteria alive. Any fish you add in the future should then be added only a couple at any one time to allow the bacteria to rise and cope.
You can, of course just add half a dozen or so at the beginning and the bacteria level will drop just to cope with them. If you do this though remember that again you will now only be able to add a few fish at a time and at least a week apart to allow the bacteria level to rise.
Either way, if you have followed these instruction to the letter then you will be able to look forward to success in fish keeping and very soon will be looking for a second and probable larger tank.
Points to remember…..
You only completely change all the water at the end of the cycling process to rid the tank of the extreme level of nitrate. Your weekly or fortnightly partial water changes need only be 25-30%. Dechlorinated water only at all times!
Gently squeeze only half the filter media (top level) at water change time and do it in OLD TANK WATER THAT YOU HAVE SIPHONED OUT. Next time do the other half. The lower level only needs doing when it looks really clogged but do check it each time.
During the cycling and when you do the first and complete water change the filter does NOT need any cleaning or disturbing.
During the cycling you can freely add and rearrange the decorations and add plants but do not add any Bogwood as this will lower the PH level and stall the cycle process. (you can add wood later if you like) Remember to rinse hands before putting them in the tank being careful not to use soap (especially anti bacterial!)
Feel free to ask any questions if you are unsure of my ramblings…..good luck!
The missus is always saying that I go on a bit 
