Question About Fishless Cycle

[GetItNow]

Okay, I am about to get a new aquarium. A 12g. I want to know what else I need to know. So far I have the idea.

Get pure ammonia, and add enough to get 4 or 5 ppm or whatever. Then let it sit until it gets a little lower like 1ppm and then add enough to go back to 4ppm and wait for nitrites to spike and try to keep the ammonia at 4ppm in order for it to drop to 0 and make sure all the cycle is working on completion.

OKAY, and for a water conditioner I should get Stress Coat? I have had tanks before but the cycle would never finish and id end up quitting and selling my stuff off out of frustration.

What I don't get is, I've read you need a source of bacteria. Well I can't get anything like gravel or filter media etc... So what do I do with this situation? Or does the water convert the ammonia without anything else automatically?

Thanks

 

[trace1]

hi
you don't need to get anything to seed the tank if you are going to use ammonia, althou it helps to get the bacteria quicker but ammonia on its own will do the job just fine you just have to be patient.
its your filter media that builds up the good bacteria for the tank the water holds very little of living bacteria.
so just add the right amount of ammonia to get it to around 5ppm & then leave it till it starts to drop.
then make sure you keep it around 4ppm until the nitrItes drop to 0ppm. once this happens as long as the ammonia drops from 4ppm within 12 hours over a couple of days then you are ready to do the big water change around 75%. then you are ready to add fish.
mines been going just over 2 weeks now & think i'm probally about half way through. just waiting for nitrItes to drop now
hope this helps

 

[GetItNow]

Any other suggestions? or opinions?

 

[dwarfgourami]

Lots of people (including me) think that a planted tank cycles faster. So if you were planning on plants, you might as well bung them in now.

There are 2 recognised methods of fishless cycling. One is the one described above, The other is calculating how many drops it takes to bring the tank up to 4-5 ppm the first time, then you add that number of drops every day until ammonia drops and nitrites spike, at this stage you start adding half the number of drops daily until nitrites too disappear, and ntirates spike- then you do your big water change. I tried this method and it worked for me. My 12 gallon cycled in 14 days.

Either way, dont forget the big water change at the end, and to add fish within 24 hours of the end of the cycle (if you can't get to the shops, just keep adding ammonia and holding off the big water change until you can).

 

[soritan]

And just a word of warning from someone who knows: sanitize all plants, rocks, bogwood, everything you put into your empty tank. You'll save yourself quite a bit of bother.

I skipped cleaning my anacharis when I put it into my tank, and wound up with all sorts of crawly things, which while not a problem to adult fish, will harm small things in your tank (shrimps, fry, etc). The planted forum on this board has some decent solutions for sanitizing your living plants.

Couldn't hurt, in any case, right?

 

[rdd1952]

Hi GetItNow and welcome to the forum.

I just wrote a long thread about a week ago detailing 2 different methods of fishless cycling. Click the link in my signature for all the info you need on fishless cycling. Hope it helps.

 

[GetItNow]

No real plants, just fake ones. I haven't even got my tank yet, but after all the pain from the other tanks I want to be positive on how to do it right this time. I figure it's better to wait 3-4 at most then to put fish and have longer problems.

To the person that cycled in 12-14 days. EXACTLY how did you do it, I'll do it that way.

 

[GetItNow]

What I'm thinking lately is.... what about the big water change, won't there still be some pure ammonia in the water. Can't that kill the fish when I add them??

Also I'd really love to add white sand like they do with saltwater tanks. What kind would be good to get? Now I've been thinking about saltwater tank, but screw that it's way too much more to do, and I'd rather be sucessful for a good amount of time with freshwater fish first.

 

[rdd1952]

What I'm thinking lately is.... what about the big water change, won't there still be some pure ammonia in the water. Can't that kill the fish when I add them??

You don't do the big water change until the tank is completely cycled, i.e. it can process 4 or 5 ppm of ammonia to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite in 10 to 12 hours. If the tank is doing that, you don't have to worry about ammonia. The water change is actually just to remove the nitrates that have been produced by all the ammonia processing.

 

[GetItNow]

OH! I got it now, I think. Does anyone know about saltwater cycling, is it that much differently. I've been curious if I really want to get clown fish, rather than guppies. I'm stuck. I like guppies a lot though. I really think white or black sand in a guppy tank would be cool.

 

[modernhamlet]

OH! I got it now, I think. Does anyone know about saltwater cycling, is it that much differently. I've been curious if I really want to get clown fish, rather than guppies. I'm stuck. I like guppies a lot though. I really think white or black sand in a guppy tank would be cool.

Very different. Saltwater fishkeeping is a whole different animal, particularly when it comes to nano tanks (12 is a nano in the saltwater world). If you want to get into saltwater, I would suggest you spend a lot of time in the several saltwater forums here before you do anything at all. It can be done, but is more complicated and expensive. A lack of knowledge will lead to much harsher and more pricey mistakes in saltwater.

Good luck!

 

[rdd1952]

I am very unlearned on SW but want to get into it with my next tank. From my understanding, it is actually less work that a FW tank once it is cycled and ready (less water changes, more topping off). Making sure it is ready is the important part. You can buy 6 danios for $2 each and cycle a FW tank (not advising that but it can be done without regard for the fish). If you lose one, it's not like your out a bunch of money. With the cost of SW fish, that isn't the case. Patience in the virtue with SW.

 

[GetItNow]

I'm going to do freshwater fisrt, after a good amount of months, I may transfer into a saltwater tank. I believe they tell you to use Live sand and live rock to cycle the saltwater tanks, and if possible buy from the fish store already made salt water, like a dollar a gallon. I'd only want a small tank. They call saltwater tanks NANO how ironic, I'm going to get the 12 gallon nano cube that can be fresh or salt water.. I'll go with the freshwater first, cycle with fishless and then not have any crazy deaths and all sorts of hassles this trip around.

 

[rdd1952]

They call saltwater tanks NANO how ironic, I'm going to get the 12 gallon nano cube that can be fresh or salt water..

Actually, I think it's more a matter of calling the small ones nanos and not just all SW in general. A lot of the SW purist think anything under 100 gallon isn't suitable for SW but as you can well imagine, there are many, many people that keep SW in smaller tanks than that including the small nano cubes. The biggest problems with small SW setups is that you can't put a lot in them. No such thing in SW as a "1" per gallon" guideline since SW fish are so much more territorial than FW community fish.

 

[GetItNow]

What would you suggest in regards of me wanting sand for my freshwater tank??? I plan on getting the 12g nano, because I've had eclipse a few times before and I want to try something new. because when I used eclipse I screwed up the cycle and I got a headache from the hood system lol.