Can someone give me a guide on fishless cycling please?

[pacu mom]

Thanks pacu mom and everyone else, but what happens if I put too little ammonia? would putting less be better than overdosing it? Could I keep any plant while cycling? all I really want is java moss lol.

Putting in less ammonia = less "food" for the beneficial bacteria you are trying to colonize = less beneficial bacteria.

The problem with cycling with a few fish is that they don't produce a lot of ammonia--so you only colonize enough beneficial bacteria to handle a light bioload.....then you add more fish, and the filtration system doesn't have enough beneficial bacteria to handle the larger bioload. That is when the tank goes into a "mini-cycle" where you get an ammonia reading--all because there is not enough BB to consume all the ammonia being generated with the extra fish.


So if you fishless cycle with a small amount of ammonia, you could end up with a small amount of BB, i.e., not enough to handle the bioload of the fish you are going to put in the tank. If this is the case, then the tank will go into a mini-cycle when you add the fish.

4 ppm of ammonia is a huge amount of ammonia--very very toxic to fish. If you fishless cycle using 4 ppm of ammonia, you will colonize a huge amount of BB which can easily handle the bioload of any fish you put in your tank. It would be extremely difficult to put in so many fish that their bioload exceeded 4 ppm of ammonia a day, but you would have enough BB that could handle that much ammonia a day (if you fishless cycle with 4 ppm ammonia first)

I advised you not to go higher than 4 ppm ammonia, only because the next reading on the test card is 8 ppm which is double the amount of ammonia. With the API test kit, there is no 5 ppm for ammonia. If you fishless cycle, you need a master test kit. The paper test strips are not accurate enough.

I know first hand what can happen to fish in an uncycled tank. As a very ignorant newbie I got a second 55 gallon tank, filled it with dechlorinated water, plugged in the new HOB filters and then moved two 15" pacu from the other 55 gallon tank they shared with four 8" oscars and two 12" plecos. My husband found the tank with 8 big fish at a moving away yard sale. We watched the tank get cloudy and the fish almost die. To save their lives, we had to move the pacu back into their old home with the other six fish. I didn't understand what happened, until I learned about the nitrogen cycle. I absolutely didn't want the same thing to happen when we moved the pacu into the 300 gallon tank...that would have been disasterous. After fishless cycling the big tank, we moved six fish into their new home with full confidence that we had enough BB to handle the bioload of the fish.

Your test kit will be very useful to you for water changes. Nitrates are the end product of the nitrogen cycle. Keeping nitrates below 20 ppm works for most fish. Some fishkeepers keep nitrates below 10 ppm. The volume and frequency of your water changes should be based on keeping the nitrates at least below 20 ppm.

At the end of the fishless cycling process, when your readings are 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, you will have a high nitrate reading. At that point, you can do a 100% water change and move your fish in. For a long time I kept a log of the nitrate reading and how much water I changed. Since we knew when we had to change the water, I stopped logging the changes. Our fish are growing and thriving and the nitrate level is creeping up, so I'll probably start logging the water changes again.

Good luck on the fishless cycling...actually there is no luck involved...it will work great

 

[H]-[H]

It is also helpful to seed your tank with beneficial bacteria. As the article states, you can use gravel or filter media from an established tank. There are also biological additives that you can purchase that can help expedite the cycling process. Most fishkeepers have nothing good to say about "Cycle" and "Biozyme", but I used both products successfully (used copious, excessively liberal amounts in my 300 gallon tank)

I just bought a bottle of "Cycle" bb & the lfs owner told me it's the best.. Is it really useless? I did follow the dosage instructions on the bottle label..

 

[pacu mom]

I just bought a bottle of "Cycle" bb & the lfs owner told me it's the best.. Is it really useless? I did follow the dosage instructions on the bottle label..

Most fishkeepers will say it doesn't work, but it worked for me in copious amounts...I used much more than the directions called for (if a little is good, more is better. )
If I should have a die off of BB, I wouldn't hesitate to pour a bottle of the stuff into my overflow box which drains into our wet/dry filter.

 

[FSM]

Using media from an established tank is fastest and easiest. If you can't do that, follow the others instructions.

 

[brianp]

I would highly doubt that you completely cycled a tank of any size with seachem stability in 8 days. I could be made a beleiver ,all you have to do is post a picture of your test vials at a water test to show that you have no nitrite or ammonia and that you do have a significant source of nitrate. I will check back and see. thanks alot------------------seachem stability and a few others like stable,etc have been tested and found that they do not contain both types of bio bacteria needed to maintain healthy aquarium. And the only store bought additive known to work is bio-spira which is refridgerated to keep the bacteria alive longer. And even this has a short shlef life.

My role is simply to relate what has worked well for me in the event that it may prove useful for someone else. The technology embodied in Stability is probably not for everyone.

 

[Swiftwater]

this sucks I just found a small crack on the top of my tank now I have to exchange it.

Stupid petco no wonder it was on sale.

 

[chester va]

it is best to get used media from a friend or LFS ....this helps speed up the cycling. but patience is what you need......never rush ait and once you have it all set up.....your tanks and filter is stable as all hell!

i don't think the "bottled" bacteria work very well........i use prime 2-3x recommended dose and do not change water during cycling.......took me 3 weeks for a 300g tank

Can I use filter media from my goldfish stocktank?