Quickest Way To Fishless Cycle

[Ginty]

Im currently cycling a 110litre tank. Fishless this time as i was given poor advice cyccling my 30litre tank. I lost 4 fish cycling my last tank and dont want this to happen so ive opted for fishless cycle.
i have two filters in my 30litre. Which is fully cycled. I was going to add one to my 110litre to build up the beneficial bacteria quicker.

Any other advice please guys to help it along the way would be appreciated.

 

[Mamashack]

Ideally you shouldn't remove more than a third of the bacterial material so if they are evenly sized filters that would be 50% and you will be compromising your established stock
There's nothing to stop you using a third of the filter material in your new tank filter tho.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The problem is that the bacteria is all over a tank as well as in the filter or filters. there is really no way to know how much may be where. But what is known is that any amount of seeding of bacteria will accelerate a cycled. And the more one can seed, the faster the cycle will progress. Given all the variables which determine where the concentrations of bacteria might be in a tank, it is best to be safe rather than sorry. What good is shortening the cycling time in a new tank if to do so one creates cycling spikes in the established tank?
 
In the end the difference in cycling time with seeding 25% vs 33% from the 30L will only be a matter of a few days. More importantly, assuming relatively equal stocking density and bio-loads for a 30 and a 110 L tank, even if you could move over 100% of the bacteria from the 30 to the 110, the bigger tank would still only have about 1/3 of what it needs to be fully cycled. To keep the 30L safe, you would want to limit what got moved to 25-30%. This means the best you can do safely is to start with between about 8% and 11% of what the new tank ultimately needs. But even this will be helpfull.

 

[Ginty]

So far all ive done is moved a couple of ornaments from the 30l to the 110l and also added the spare 2nd filter also so the new filter can build up bacteria a bit quicker.

What else do i need to do? Ive never done this before.

do i add a small sprinkle of food to start an ammonia spike.?

 

[daizeUK]

If you haven't yet seen our cycling guide, this should answer a lot of your questions.  http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/
 
Fish food is not recommended as an ammonia source because it pollutes the water and can't be controlled easily.  A pure ammonia source such as bottled household ammonia (a non-frothing brand) is recommended.

 

[Ch4rlie]

do i add a small sprinkle of food to start an ammonia spike.?

 
I would not recommend using fish food as an ammonia source, it is a messy and very inaccurate way of dosing ammonia to a tank.
 
Suggest you have a read of this, just to help you understand a little more how bacteria starts and what they do exactly.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/
 
As for dosing ammonia, your best bet is to acquire a bottle of household ammonia from hardware store like Homebase, or online where there are several choices of ammonia.
 
And for also, you will need a water testing kit if you do not already have one, API freshwater master test kit is a popular choice.

 

[Mamashack]

Kleen Off is a good brand with nothing added and is readily available thro eBay.
It's 9.5% ammonia and water only. Lasts for ages!

 

[Ginty]

Kleen Off is a good brand with nothing added and is readily available thro eBay.
It's 9.5% ammonia and water only. Lasts for ages!

sorry if this is a silly question. But how often do i use this stuff if i brought it?

 

[daizeUK]

Full instructions are in the guide we linked above.  Use the calculator here http/www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm to determine how much to add (using 3ppm as your target ammonia level).

 

[Ginty]

Ive just did that. Im trying to view the pictures for ammonia in uk but they wont load for some reason. Can someone post some pics so i no what to look for??
http/pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=331008803672&alt=web


is this any good?

 

[Ch4rlie]

This may help to give you some idea what to look out for - 
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/427161-ammonia-and-bacteria-starter-sources/

 

[Mamashack]

Use the facilities on this site to help you thro the process 
As mentioned before there are articles to help (for 1 see the signature at the end of my posts)
Also the calculator here on TFF is invaluable and has helped me thro a couple of cycles.
Think you've been looking on eBay.com
This is the link to the search page I did on eBay.co.uk:
http/www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=kleen+off&_sacat=0&_from=R40