Fishless Cycling with tetra safe start?
- Thread starter Rafini
- Start date
After adding a couple of fish, or without? Im assuming with, as there needs to be a source of ammonia. I was thinking a couple of livebearers or a few hardy tetras, I’m going for a South American type theme, smaller peaceful cichlids a few plants etc.
I forgot to mention i could not find ammonia, I can continue looking tomorrow but for now I have no pure ammonia in a bottle.
I was amazed by the brands that offer the bacteria, I found seachem at my lfs but not tetra. Seachem have proven to be good in the past, should I pick some up anyway? Can’t hurt
thanks,
Rafini
I thought you were going to use fish food pellet. Some use raw shrimp. Hardy fish specie will definitely will work.
For now yes, I've used some pellets. I`ll check ammonia tomorrow and if its higher than 3-4 ppm I`ll do a water change to bring it down.
I want to have a little ammonia in there but not a crazy amount.
The tank is officially set up now, wood is floating as we speak and the sump is running smoothly.
I'm going to pick up the BB from my coworker very quickly, as to maximize its potency.
She is essentially cleaning out a well established filter and giving me gunk + media.
Then I will pick up some of the bottled stuff just cause it cant hurt, and maybe a few hardy fish, I know they say 1 fish per 10g of aquarium.
but I`ll probably get about 3-5 I don't want to overdo it.
I would prefer red eye tetra, as I was thinking of having a group of them in this set up anyway.
I want to have a little ammonia in there but not a crazy amount.
The tank is officially set up now, wood is floating as we speak and the sump is running smoothly.
I'm going to pick up the BB from my coworker very quickly, as to maximize its potency.
She is essentially cleaning out a well established filter and giving me gunk + media.
Then I will pick up some of the bottled stuff just cause it cant hurt, and maybe a few hardy fish, I know they say 1 fish per 10g of aquarium.
but I`ll probably get about 3-5 I don't want to overdo it.
I would prefer red eye tetra, as I was thinking of having a group of them in this set up anyway.
I'd chuck some NLS into the tank. No reason to not get the ammonia production started. You should be testing for ammonia and nitrite. Once both reach 0 (and nitrate is not 0), you can do a water change to reduce the nitrates and add fish etc.
Okay, last night i threw in a small pinch of nls, the small pellet kind.
Hopefully that will be enough to start some ammonia.
I’m a little worried about using the food approach as I have read it leads to excess nutrients in the water and can be long and unreliable to establish.
any thoughts?
Hopefully that will be enough to start some ammonia.
I’m a little worried about using the food approach as I have read it leads to excess nutrients in the water and can be long and unreliable to establish.
any thoughts?
I would think in an 80 gal tank, if you put in the bacterial soup, and add half dozen tetras, it would kind of take care of itself, as far as cycling goes.
I'd of course test regularly just in case
I would not add any new larger fish for about 2 months beyond the initial group of tetras though.
With my current tank (180 gals)
I tossed in about 2 dozen mosquito fish I had collected, with a moderate amount of plants, (no bacterial soup, no ammonia, no fish food) and let the tank go for about 2 months before adding cichlids. (I did use beach sand so it may have been seeded)
During that two months, I never had detects for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. I tested for each parameter, every other day.
And expected to lose some mosquito fish, but didn't lose a one.
I was a bit surprised, but with such small fish in a decent volume of water, and plants (obviously seeded), it seemed to be a washout.
If I would have added the cichlids right away, I suspect it would have been a different story.
I'd of course test regularly just in case
I would not add any new larger fish for about 2 months beyond the initial group of tetras though.
With my current tank (180 gals)
I tossed in about 2 dozen mosquito fish I had collected, with a moderate amount of plants, (no bacterial soup, no ammonia, no fish food) and let the tank go for about 2 months before adding cichlids. (I did use beach sand so it may have been seeded)
During that two months, I never had detects for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. I tested for each parameter, every other day.
And expected to lose some mosquito fish, but didn't lose a one.
I was a bit surprised, but with such small fish in a decent volume of water, and plants (obviously seeded), it seemed to be a washout.
If I would have added the cichlids right away, I suspect it would have been a different story.
Last edited:
Just ran my first test,
Ph: 8.1
Ammonia: 0.50 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
water is discoloured From all the driftwood I added, it’s from my old tanks before I moved out. It’s been out of the water for over a year so it’s still floating.
I added some sinking shrimp pellets directly to the sump to add a little more ammonia, those things are pretty messy, the nls is breaking downextremely slowly.
Hey Duanes, yes I too think that a small group of small fish could provide a constant ammonia source.
Im not in any rush to Add cichlids just yet, mainly because I’m still trying to decide between a general South American or an I heated gymnogeo type setup.
I suppose I could add livebearers instead of tetras as they like my PH. That’s my main struggle for keeping South American fish.
mid I add a few small fish I’ll test ammonia twice or more daily and do water changes to remove excess ammonia.
Using food makes a mess, and makes it impossible to control how much ammonia is going in.
Use this bacterial starter, it and Safe Start are almost indentical. Don't bother with Stability or any others you can find for that matter.
https://www.amazon.ca/DrTims-Aquatics-Nitrifying-Bacteria-Cycling/dp/B002DVTFGE?th=1
Use ammonium Chloride to cycle with
https://www.aquariumdepot.ca/drtim-s-aquatics-ammonium-chloride-solution-2oz.html
Use the directions here
http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling
Use this bacterial starter, it and Safe Start are almost indentical. Don't bother with Stability or any others you can find for that matter.
https://www.amazon.ca/DrTims-Aquatics-Nitrifying-Bacteria-Cycling/dp/B002DVTFGE?th=1
Use ammonium Chloride to cycle with
https://www.aquariumdepot.ca/drtim-s-aquatics-ammonium-chloride-solution-2oz.html
Use the directions here
http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling
Hey, I’m not too worried about the starter bacteria as I will be getting a bacteria soup from a coworkers established aquarium, I was thinking of adding a bottled one also just in case, tetra seems to be sold out in the places I’ve looked.
I could look for some more ammonia but I don’t really want to buy online, right now I just need a Little ammonia in there to sustain the bb I’ll be adding later today.
