How do you guys initially cycle your monster tanks?
- Thread starter JFishNerd
- Start date
@Jose- Unfortunately, he's serious. I know cuz we locked horns in one of his threads, but now we are friends. Hi Adrian.
@OP- Same principle, just different scale. Using established filter media from another tank is typically easiest/best. Add fish slowly so as to not introduce too much ammonia and overload the established bio (as Regalblue mentioned). I "cycled" my 770 this way.
I think with what we know about the nitrogen cycle, using live fish is pretty cruel. All you need is a source of ammonia (buy a bottle of ammonia from a local hardware store- scentless...no additives) and add til you have a consistent 5PPM ammo reading and maintain those levels for a few weeks then test until you see nitrates. Do a large water change prior to adding a few fish and you are good to go.
I've also used raw market shrimp...just throw it in the tank and let it rot...natural source of ammonia that will have your bio filter up and running within 4 to 6 weeks, although it's a bit stinky. I've never tried any of the bacteria in a bottle products....I've heard mixed reviews, the best being for Seachem Stability. For huge tanks it would be expensive though.
Planning on getting a big tank?
@OP- Same principle, just different scale. Using established filter media from another tank is typically easiest/best. Add fish slowly so as to not introduce too much ammonia and overload the established bio (as Regalblue mentioned). I "cycled" my 770 this way.
I think with what we know about the nitrogen cycle, using live fish is pretty cruel. All you need is a source of ammonia (buy a bottle of ammonia from a local hardware store- scentless...no additives) and add til you have a consistent 5PPM ammo reading and maintain those levels for a few weeks then test until you see nitrates. Do a large water change prior to adding a few fish and you are good to go.
I've also used raw market shrimp...just throw it in the tank and let it rot...natural source of ammonia that will have your bio filter up and running within 4 to 6 weeks, although it's a bit stinky. I've never tried any of the bacteria in a bottle products....I've heard mixed reviews, the best being for Seachem Stability. For huge tanks it would be expensive though.
Planning on getting a big tank?
We fishless cycled our 300 gallon tank using a source of ammonia with no additives or surfactants in it. It took over a month to fishless cycle the tank. We were able to move our fish into the new tank with the assurance that we had bacterial filtration that would more than handle the bioload of our fish. For our big tank upgrade, I had considered hooking up one of the new Ultimas to the 300 gallon tank about a month before the new tank was set up. I've come up with a better idea. I'm going to place the media from one of the Ultimas in a mesh bag and toss it into the tank for a month. On fish moving day, the media will go into the Ultima. We will also connect the wet/dry filter running off the 300 gallon tank to the sump tank of the new big tank. Since the sump tank doesn't have an overflow box, I'll just throw in a little submersible pump to pump water into the wet/dry filter. We're not adding anymore fish, just moving the fish to a bigger home, so the bioload will not be increasing. It should be considerably diluted. I will monitor water parameters with frequent testing and will also have a good supply of Dr. Tims One and Only on hand in case I need it. Just moving the biological filtration over to the new tank should give me an immediately "cycled" new tank.
ups i didnt post complete, i cycled using some water of another tank, drift wood from other tank, and 1 plecostomus (they inmortal)
just go to your pet store, buy a plecostomus , tell them to give u alot of water of the tank and drift wood from tanks, and thats all. it cycles pretty fast
just go to your pet store, buy a plecostomus , tell them to give u alot of water of the tank and drift wood from tanks, and thats all. it cycles pretty fast
Lol, ridiculous... To the OP, previous tank water and driftwood isn't going to cycle a tank. Just wanted to let you know cause I see some silly information being given here. A pleco will do the trick since they do generate massive amounts of waste to provide the ammonia to get the cycle started, if you want to expose a fish to extreme levels of ammonia and nitrite and shorten it's life span, if not kill it in the process.
I myself have always used established bb media from a previously running filter for the insta cycle effect. If I didn't have the established media available I'd go ahead and do the rather simple fishless cycle with pure ammonia like pacu mom already mentioned.
I myself have always used established bb media from a previously running filter for the insta cycle effect. If I didn't have the established media available I'd go ahead and do the rather simple fishless cycle with pure ammonia like pacu mom already mentioned.