How Exactly To Do Fishless Cycle

[Sheridanp]

Hi,

I was looking around, and I saw several posts on how to do a fishless cycle. What would be the healthiest and best way to? A link to something would be nice.

 

[BigIan]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=73365

read the articles in there...

Also more helpfull information is avalable on a whole range of subjects in the faq section

 

[Sheridanp]

I still don't get what to do. So, I set up my tank with all the plants and water and sand. And I start my filter and heater and all that jazz. Then what? It' tell ing me to use filters from established tanks etc. I don't quite catch on.

 

[BigIan]

i`m not an expert but..

when you have fish in your tank they eat and breath, and crap.

the uneaten food rots and produces amonia and nitrates ect, aswell as the fishy poo and other things....

your filter is supposed to be a home for bacteria that eat the amonia and nitrates ect.

so to CYCLE your tank you need to get that bacteria up to an amount than can deal with the ammount of fish you plan to put in there...

to do this you set up your tank fully water (treating the water for chlorien ect), filter heater plants rocks ect (its not essentail to have all your decorations ect in there but personaly i believe it helps)

Then you figure out how much amonia to add to take your tank up to 4 ppm (test your calculations in a 10 L bucket first)
you then add a product like cycle or stress zyme (these contain the bacteria that the filter needs) and wait and wait and wait,
test every day for amonia, nitrates nitrites aswell as ph and record your results

when the amonia has almost reached zero add more amonia to take it back up to 4 ppm again,

when the amonia drops to zero within 12 hours you need to do a 90% water change after this your tank is fully cycled and ready for your fish


hope i got it right and hope it helps

 

[Sheridanp]

Ok, that was good advice. I need some ammonia and cycle or stress zyme. That's really all I need I guess, thanks.

 

[Squid]

I used the add and wait method on this thread

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...3861&hl=methods

So.. get yourself a test kit, and some ammonia.

basically, your fish is cycled when you can add about 3ppm of ammonia and after 12 hours the ammonia and nitrites are at 0.. Do an 80% water change to reduce the nitrates, then add fish within 12-24 hours so that the bacteria doesnt die off..

Keep with it.. the ammonia hardly moves or a few days, then all of a sudden its nearly gone.. keep topping it up when it reduces down to about 1 (although i just checked every 12 hours and added more then).
The nitrites take a little longer, so be patient..

Your bound to have more questions whilst doing it, so post away.. My anubias and java fern was fine whilst fishless cycling, but the spiral valis took a battering. Next time i dont think i will add the plants until after, although some say it helps with the cycle.

EDIT: Just noticed you have a tank with fish already.. the quickest way to do the fishless cycle would be to run the new filter for the new tank along side the old one for 2 weeks or so, then transfer it to the new tank..

Cheers
Squid

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on the Cycle product, I'm doing a fishless cycle on my 29 gal right now and that stuff did not speed anything up. Also many others on here have had the same result using it. I shouldv'e known better by reading about the others, but I'm hard headed and wasted my money anyway! See if you can find some filters or gravel, or even decorations from an already established tank, maybe from a friend or a fish store. That will help the most.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Even if you can't get stuff from an established tank, as DazedNConfused says (though that is the easiest way), you can cycle the tank fine by just adding liquid ammonia; you don't need any of that cycle stuff. I added enough drops to bring my reading up to 4-5 pm and then kept adding the same amount every day until the ammonia readings went down (when I tested next day) and nitrite readings shot up- then I added half the amount until the nitrites, too dropped to 0 and the nitrates shot up. Then I did big water change (70%, with dechlorinated water) and then added fish within 24 hours. I found this method both quick and easy.
There is another method - add and wait- where you bring the reading up to 5 ppm and then wait for it to go down to 0, then add more. This is also popular with members of the forum.