My Fishless Cycle
- Thread starter tommyg123
- Start date
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
the theory behind dechlor is that the chlorine and chloramines in your tap water kill the bacteria that you are trying to grow, now at the moment you don't have a lot of bacteria but you will have very minute numbers of them, there is a chance that using water that had not been dechlorinated just killed off the few bacteria that you had which would mean that the cycle wouldn't start.
now i actually think this is fairly unlikely, without getting into a whole debate about the validity of dechlor, there is certainly some debate over weather it's actually needed or not the main thinking being if there are some bacteria in the tap water in the first place then they must have developed immunity to chlorine/chloramine or they would have been killed off and never make it into your tank in the first place. however because dechlor is cheap, easy to use and does some other things like break down heavy metals most of us decide to use it anyway as a bit of a safe guard.
We fairly regularly get people cropping up on the forum saying they just did a water change without dechlor and panicing about what will happen, I can't think of a single case where there has been a mini-cycle or a full cycle attributed to this happening.
So you have a choice, you can leave things as they are and it will probably be OK but there is a theoretical risk that you've crippled the cycle before you even started. Or you can go for the safe side, drain the tank and do a 100% (or as close as you can get) water change using dechlorinated water and then top the ammonia back up to 5ppm.
It's up to you really, while I don't think there's any real risk I'd probably do the change to be on the safe side anyway.
now i actually think this is fairly unlikely, without getting into a whole debate about the validity of dechlor, there is certainly some debate over weather it's actually needed or not the main thinking being if there are some bacteria in the tap water in the first place then they must have developed immunity to chlorine/chloramine or they would have been killed off and never make it into your tank in the first place. however because dechlor is cheap, easy to use and does some other things like break down heavy metals most of us decide to use it anyway as a bit of a safe guard.
We fairly regularly get people cropping up on the forum saying they just did a water change without dechlor and panicing about what will happen, I can't think of a single case where there has been a mini-cycle or a full cycle attributed to this happening.
So you have a choice, you can leave things as they are and it will probably be OK but there is a theoretical risk that you've crippled the cycle before you even started. Or you can go for the safe side, drain the tank and do a 100% (or as close as you can get) water change using dechlorinated water and then top the ammonia back up to 5ppm.
It's up to you really, while I don't think there's any real risk I'd probably do the change to be on the safe side anyway.
Ah ok i see, yeah i think when i buy it i'll do a 100% water change better safe than sorry. but if i was to put Dechlorinator in the tank now would that not do anything to help then?
Im going to my LFS in about 2 hours and going to get some Dechlorinator, bogwood and some more sand is it worth me getting plants at this point?
thanks for your time
Im going to my LFS in about 2 hours and going to get some Dechlorinator, bogwood and some more sand is it worth me getting plants at this point?
thanks for your time
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
might be too late, bacteria could have already been killed off...... or not!! ha ha
up to you about plants, they make very little practical difference to a standard cycle, it's really only if you get into very heavy planting that it can have any effect. just an asthetic choice.
up to you about plants, they make very little practical difference to a standard cycle, it's really only if you get into very heavy planting that it can have any effect. just an asthetic choice.
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
no probs 
Right then just finished adding more sand and changing all the water with Tetra aqua safe water.
bog wood is in boiling water at the moment.
so now i'll add 2,5ml ammonia and then retest my Ph and Ammonia and post results here.
bog wood is in boiling water at the moment.
so now i'll add 2,5ml ammonia and then retest my Ph and Ammonia and post results here.
Miss Wiggle
Practically perfect in every way
good stuff, keep us posted
More results from the past few days i havn't been on here.
Day 3 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
Day 4 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
Day 5 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
When should i be expecting the Ammonia to drop down?
thanks for reading
Day 3 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
Day 4 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
Day 5 = ph 8.0 / Am 4-5ppm
When should i be expecting the Ammonia to drop down?
thanks for reading
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Can sometimes take a couple of weeks for the first dosing of ammonia to drop down, that's normal.
~~waterdrop~~
~~waterdrop~~
gaz gun man
Fish Addict
yep as waterdrop says, it can take a couple of weeks.
It took me about 7 days before I saw any improvement, but it does vary greatly, depending on the tank.
It took me about 7 days before I saw any improvement, but it does vary greatly, depending on the tank.
yasinullah
Fish Crazy
hi tommyg123, i will be getting the same tank later this week too, so will be following your thread too
can i ask did u add the green nitrate sponge to your filter? or leave it out for the cycling process?
thnx
can i ask did u add the green nitrate sponge to your filter? or leave it out for the cycling process?
thnx
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