Fishless Cycle

[Jae1525]

I'm into my 3rd day of my fishless cycle Here is a quick description of what has happend so far...

Day 1
Got 100% amonia and poured some in (I was being all scientific at first but then just thought... Sod it) Got a reading of about 5ppm.
Did a water change in my other tank and vacumed the substrait a bit... I poured the water in my cycling tank thinking it would help with the bacteria growth.
I also got gravel from my smaller tank and put it on my substrait near the canister filters intake.

Day 2
Not much happend here. Amonia seemed to stay the same. Put in a tad more for good measure.

Day 3 (today)
Did an amonia test and it hasnt gone down. I'm thinking I put too much in and its off the scale?
Tested Nitrite and it's reading about 0.8 ppm!!! (joy ) Means the nitrosomonas have developed!!

As a general rule in a cycle with fish it takes 10 days for you amonia to spike. With my fishless cycle I spiked it in a second.
It would now usualy take aprox 30 days for the nitrite to spike.
I am thinking that now I have the nitrite in my tank that if I put more gravel in from my other tank the nitrobacter that breaks down nitrite into nitrate will develop faster.

Any comments, questions or suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[loachy]

Hi

I am about to purchase my first tropical setup

I haven't yet decided whether to go fishless or not when cycling. However on a different note; did you fill the tank up straight from the tap? If so did you add anything!

Thanks.

 

[Jae1525]

Straight from the hose!

I added stuff to dechlorinate the water (Aqua plus).
It's v important because chlorine and chloramine kill the bacteria we need to perform the nitrogen cycle.
I skipped adding the aqua cycle stuff to see if the bacteria would develop better from gravel from my other tank. It has indeed!!!

I have already saved 10 days doing it this way because of the amonia spike I created. I have to say its my first time doing a fishless cycle so I'm playing it by ear.

The plus points are.

1. No fish can get harmed during the cycles spikes
2. Time saved
3. So cheap to do £1.50 for 100% amonia 100ml (no frequent water changes whilst your tank cycles to protect the fish etc)
4.Beacause of the initial spike of amonia the tank developes a huge collony of bacteria so when its cycle is complete you can stock it quite allot!
5. Many more!!!

 

[Jae1525]

I have to commend you on joining the forum before buying any fish or a tank.

Your gonna learn so much here and so fast.
I thought I knew loads about fish before I joined this forum.
I was wrong!!! )
I knew the basics but now I am like a walking fish fact machine!!!

 

[daisycat]

The diary of my fishless cycle is in my sig if you would like to compare (completed about 4 weeks ago). I found it worked really well.

 

[Jae1525]

Cheers Daisycat, thats v nice of you.

I hope mine goes as well as yours!

 

[Jae1525]

Day 4:

Anonia is still through the roof!
I have not added any more since day 1!!
Nitrites are off my testing kits scale!! (3.3)
Nitrates are also off the scale!! (110)
My tank is an inhospitable place indeed at the moment!
I think the gravel and 2 buckets of water from my other tank must have done the trick in my tank!!
Just gotta wait now I guess and add more amonia if it gets low!!

 

[Jae1525]

Day 9

Amonia has dropped significantly. it now reads 1.2!! That was pretty much overnight!!

Nitrates and nitrites are still sky high!!!!

Just gna plop a bit more amonia in... v scientific.