Fishless Cycle Question.

[ron v]

If you wait a month, you are right, bacteria will die off. It takes a month or so to cycle your tank. You have plenty of time to plan what you want. Just be ready to put all your new fish in as soon as the cycle completes. If you are not quite ready, just keep feeding ammonia to your tank every day until you put the fish in. The ammonia is food for the bacteria. As long as the bacteria is fed, it doesn't care where the ammonia comes from. This is really a very simple way to cycle an aquarium. I don't understand why some people have a problem. It is WAY better than using fish. It is cheaper. It doesn't stress fish. It is less stressful to the hobbyist. It is probably quicker. You can put all your fish in at one time. What's not to like.

[TomCool]

I will definitely be doing a fishless cycle, problem is I can't find pure ammonia

[lochness]

i was actually considering using a piece of raw unsmoked fish from the market to cycle my tank - and yes, most petstores clean out the tanks of dead fish (the better ones anyway) - having worked in the fish dept of a petstore, it still bothers me greatly to see fish dead in a tank as a customer - it doesn't take very long to walk up and down the tanks and spot them and remove them..i do not mean this in a deceptive manner, but for the health of the remaining fish as many parasites leave a dead fish and look for a live host, nevermind the decomposing sanitary issues and bio-overload. this is a good reason to have a quarantine tank in any case - not very practical, i know, but if you can, it's a great idea -- one tip: before I ever added a new purchase i'd add a lil bit of salt to the tank as a natural preventative (reg water changes removes the salt in time)

speaking of which, oldsalt, LOL on your stance regarding *cycle* -- i am that way with stresscoat - another product that should have been removed from the market long ago...i was disappointed to see it still being sold.

[ron v]

[quote=lochness]i was actually considering using a piece of raw unsmoked fish from the market to cycle my tank

Why would you not use ammonia??? Just curious.

[lochness]

[quote=ron v]

Originally Posted by lochness

i was actually considering using a piece of raw unsmoked fish from the market to cycle my tank

Why would you not use ammonia??? Just curious.

well, it was not really a popular method or at least I didnt know much about it when I first started fishkeeping over 25 yrs ago and after my first setup was established, I would simply move substrate and a spare live filter to any new tank so I didnt really need to cycle and it seems less of a hassle for me, really, to just put a piece of raw fish (that is dead already and meant for food) to cycle a new tank than to experiment with pure ammonia and try to guesstimate with constant measuring and tests. After 3 weeks I would be able to safely add a fish or 2 (of course with proper testing of lvls at this point) - yes, I know there are faster methods, but I'm a bit old-fashioned and extremely patient.

[ron v]

Well alrighty then.

[Mariah]

when you are cycling, should you run the filter the whole time? and should you put the carbon filter cartridge in the filter or leave it until you put the fish and plants in?

Mariah

[darkfalz]

If it's carbon only then you can leave it out, but put it in a day or two before fish. If it's carbon in the form of a sponge or something, then put it in from the start. Remember, the bacteria also forms on the surface of the carbon.

[dolifisis]

I started cycling with ammonia yesterday and need to know what a 'spike' in nitrites means. I'm confused because I'm already showing nitrites and hadn't expected to see that yet.

[The Gallonator]

^^^that is strange i been going for 7 days and no nitrites

[dolifisis]

Day two and I just checked again. Ammonia 5 and nitrites are a 1. Do I cut back already or do you think there is something wrong here?

[Damon]

The point of a fishless cycle is to add enough ammonia to handle your full bioload. While we aren't perfect (add too much or too little) if done right, there is a minimal spike (less than .5) or minimal dieoff of bacteria.

In a planted tank, its quite possible to have nitrates bottom out (drop to 0). This is normally how we get bga or staghorn in planted tanks. Most high tech planted tanks have to add well over 20-30ppm on NO3 for the plants. I do................

[Worrywort]

If you see dead fish in the tanks at an LFS that are being "fed on" by others, be wary! Some stores do not feed their fish, they just let the ones that don't make it do this! While in theory it doesn't sound completely irrational since they will lose fish anyway and "waste not want not". Realistically however, it is a horrible way to sicken the entire tank through malnurishment and disease. Check with the store regarding its feeding cycle and what they feed to see if this is a possibility or if they are just overworked staff.

[eon17]

i never do fishless cycle i just set up tank and then wait 3 days. then i put 2 fish in it for a week then i finish stocking it and i ahve really healthy fish

[LauraFrog]

Hi guys.
I've read through this and about fifty articles, but I still don't quite understand.
I put a heap of wild fish in my tank and this was a few months ago, before I had read anything about cycling. They went in with some wild plants, store-bought gravel and a few store-bought ornaments, with a complete filter system. There were no deaths.
I put a bristlenose catfish and three guppies in the tank. The wild fish were not agressive with each other but they ate the guppies. I was horrified and evicted them unceremoniously from the aquarium. The catfish hid under a rock and wasn't touched. I left the aquarium basically alone with just the catfish in it for about two months because I was real busy then I decided to do something about it. I stuck the catfish in a jug and basically disembowelled the aquarium, replaced the filter wool but not any other of the filter media, scrubbed it all out with hot water and rinsed the gravel. I put the catfish back. It stayed there for about two weeks and then I put in one platy (Mum set some crazy ultimatum about room tidying and refused to let me get any more fish or I would have bought them all at once.)

About a week after that, the catfish and the platy are fine in there. Does this mean that my tank is cycling already? Most of the filter media is intact and that had been running for three or four months and I had introduced wild plants into the aquarium. Am I safe or do I need to do something before I stock my aquarium? (Planning on buying more platies and some tetras.)

I don't have ammonia available, or ammonia, nitrite or nitrate test kits. Live in small country town in Australia.

[COM]

I recently set up a new tank (I moved). I purchased a 20 Extra High with a Marineland Eclipse hood.

I set up the tank on a Saturday, squeezed a packet of Bio-Spira in, and let the filter run overnight. The next morning, I added 21 fish: 10 Serpae Tetras, 3 Marigold Swords, 6 Guppies, and 2 Angelfish. About 2 days later the ammonia flashed to a whopping .25 PPM and then over the next few days dwindled down to an undetectable level.

About 2 weeks later I added two Spotted Corydoras. The ammonia level is still below a detectable level.

So far, only one fish has died (a guppy - someone nipped her tail). The water in the tank is nice and clear. The fish look happy.

[trashion]

You may have cycled the tank overnight, but that tank is overstocked. Please don't post on old threads.

[COM]

How is the thank overstocked?

[emc7]

A twenty extra high is the one with the footprint of 10 gallon tank, isn't it? 10 serpaes is the right number for a school, but without enough swimming room they will be nippy. They would be my suspects for the guppie killers. Two itty, bitty angels are fine, but when they grow up they will either fight each other or pair up and turn on every other fish in the tank. Although your filter seems to be handling all the ammonia from those fish, I think you will find you need a lot of water changes to keep the nitrate down in such a small tank down with so many fish. Your stocking is appropriate for a 55 gallon tank.

[trashion]

I agree with emc7. You really only have the surface exchange/area of a 10-gallon, and you should stock it as such.