Cycling a tank
- Thread starter NeonTetraFan
- Start date
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Blackwater said:Depends on the size of the tank. I have been using straigt ammonia and Bio-Spira in my 180 and it's been cycling for 16 days. it's still not done!! I'm still waiting for the Nitrites to drop, the ammonia did several days ago, right to zero. It takes time. Go to the piranha-fury.com website, there is a fishless cycle article pinned under water chemistry, check it out. Using fish to cycle is dumb. The ammonia and nitrites will stress them if not kill them, thus increasing risk of disease in the tank. Oh yeah, turnm the heat up to 84-85 degrees, that will help.
Why would you put Ammonia in a tank? I have cycled all but 1 of my tanks with chems...in the last month I have cycled 1- 300 with Bio Spiro took less than a week to be perfect, did a 75 and 2 -120's with seachems stability...love it and way less expensive then bio spiro.
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Stability.html
I always add the fish when I add the chem. I talked to a rep for seachem and he said you always want to add the fish when you add the chem.
I waited for 1 tank to cycle ....... never again.
NeonTetraFan said:Where do I get Bio-Spira?
I had always used the bio siro untill I talked to the seachem rep and he conviced me to try his product.... glad I did. Bio Spiro is around $25 per 90gal and has a 3 month shelf life.....seachem is around $14 and it will cycle a 125gal and has a 4year shelf life.
If you still want Bio Spiro you will have to call around to see who carries it.
Ammonia to feed the BB i guess. I usually cycle my tank using the fishless method. I throw in a couple or Market Prawn and let them rot in the tank and just load the filter with commercial BB. PLace more MP in to rot as the days go by. In about 3 weeks time ull get a fully established LARGE BB colony. Then just remove any rotten MP thats left and your done with your cycle.
As repair has said use either stability or bio-spira.
From what i know bio-spira instantly cycles a tank if not within a week the most the tank will should be cycled.
The thing about beneficial bacteria is that it needs a source of ammonia to feed off, therefore fish are necessary or ammonia from a bottle (not the detergent type) will also work.
The best way to cycle and easiest is to have your filter sit in an already established tank for a period of time then add it to your new tank and add some gravel or decor from the established tank where the beneficial bacteria already exists and have fish in the new tank and your tank should be cycled in no time.
There is many methods used to cycle a tank, if it was upto me i would use either the seachem or bio-spira method or the method i mentioned above.
As for fish stressing out when cycling a tank - yes this could be true if not done properly but fish have been used for decades to cycle tanks before any products were available so have a think about that AND if done with water changes there will be little to no damage towards the fish
From what i know bio-spira instantly cycles a tank if not within a week the most the tank will should be cycled.
The thing about beneficial bacteria is that it needs a source of ammonia to feed off, therefore fish are necessary or ammonia from a bottle (not the detergent type) will also work.
The best way to cycle and easiest is to have your filter sit in an already established tank for a period of time then add it to your new tank and add some gravel or decor from the established tank where the beneficial bacteria already exists and have fish in the new tank and your tank should be cycled in no time.
There is many methods used to cycle a tank, if it was upto me i would use either the seachem or bio-spira method or the method i mentioned above.
As for fish stressing out when cycling a tank - yes this could be true if not done properly but fish have been used for decades to cycle tanks before any products were available so have a think about that AND if done with water changes there will be little to no damage towards the fish
