What're The Optimal Water Parameters?

[celaeno]

what should the water parameters be if i want to fishless cycle a 10 gallon fastest (temperature, pH, hardness, etc)? do i need airstones? the filter will be a penguin bio-wheel power filter (100 gph).

 

[Colin_T]

PH about 7.0
hardness, whatever the fish will be living in.
temperature about 28-30C. Turn the temp down after the process and before you add the fish.
Lots of surface turbulence/ aeration will help as the bacteria are aerobic (require oxygen). The more oxygen the better the bacteria does.
Reducing the lighting will also help because the bacteria prefer darkness over bright light. However, if you have live plants in the tank, then have the lights on.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with Colin on temperature (29C), oxygen and lighting.

One bit that I gleaned from Tim Hovanec's papers and comments was his claim that a pH of 8.0 to 8.4 is optimal for the two species we are interested in and that "some carbonate hardness is necessary." (because the bacteria actually use it)

Both these things can be acheived via baking soda and usually that baking soda is not needed and not advisable after fishless cycling is over and you switch over to fish.

Whether this Hovanec info is correct or not is not something I've seen evidence on. There may not be any detectable difference between a pH of 7 or 8. There is plenty of evidence here on the forum that the cycle will stall down at a pH of 6.2 and below and that above 8.5 is bad.

~~waterdrop~~