How to fishless cycle a 180 liter tank

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g2orange

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 10, 2011
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Florida
Hi Everyone, I got a deal I couldn't resist on a used 180 liter bow front. I've cleaned it, checked it for leaks and I'm ready to start cycling. It has a fluval canister filter. I've read about how to do fishless cycling with ammonia from the hardware store. But I'm afraid to use anything purchased from a hardware store in the tank because it might have some unwanted chemical in it. Can I just add a lot of fish food or a large shrimp from the grocery store?

I'm going to use some bio balls from my other tank to get the initial bacteria in the new tank. I need a source of ammonia.

I'm new at this and any advise is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Since you are seeding the new tank with the bio balls from a established tank, just use fish for producing ammonia. You could also pick up stability which is basically bacteria in a bottle.
 
I have been told you can put in a few uncured live rocks and a handful of brine shrimp and it will cycle
 
Thank for the responses. I just wanted post an update for any viewers who might be interested. I didn't want to use pure ammonia because I was afraid that it might have some other chemical added to it that would be harmful to the fish after cycling. But the big advantage of using pure ammonia is that there is a lot of information available on how much to add and keep adding during the cycling. So I tried to find pure ammonia at my local hardware stores. I had no luck. The ammonia products that I found did not list the ingredients and foamed when I shook the bottles (which is a sign that other cleaning ingredients have been added). So I decided to add some food to the water. I had 6oz of frozen clams I bought from the LFS to feed our fish. But our fish wouldn't eat it so I put it in a net and put it in the aquarium. After about 24hrs, my whole house started to smell like rotten fish. Ammonia in the tank was at 2.0. I seeded the tank with bio balls from my other tank. And I turned up the heaters to 86F.

So my next plan is to do a massive water change and start over with fishless cycling. I may have to order the ammonia online though.

If anyone views this and has done a fishless cycle, please post.
 
I just completed a non-fish cycle on a 110l tank. While it is smaller than what you have it did work perfectly. I used the bio-additive from Seachem (stability), 7lbs of uncured live rock and and about a half a cup of brine shirmp. There was no off odor and the cycle proceeded quickly lasting about 2 weeks. I went through all the stages and stabilized 2 nights ago. I now have a few cleaners in there and 4 damsels and everyone is happy and the numbers are holding steady, 0 ammonia/nitrite/nitrate; pH of 8.2; alk is at 3.5 and 8 dKH; specific gravity is 1.024. These numbers are from about 10minutes ago with the livestock being in the tank for 2 days thus far.
 
You can get the "pure" ammonia at Ace Hardware. A basic test is if you shake the bottle and it foams noticeably it has other stuff in it.

Is your tank freshwater or salt?
 
Hi caerdis, thanks for posting. I'll try using brine shrimp to produce ammonia and I'll see about the seachem stability. I'm glad you had success with fishless cycling.

I visited another local store to try and find pure ammonia today and the only think they had also had surfactant in it. The surfactant is a foaming agent (I think) and I'm sure it would be very bad to have it in the tank.
 
Hi aclockworkorange, my tank is freshwater. I haven't gone to an Ace Hardware yet. I'll look there tomorrow. thanks
 
Update. I changed out 95% of the water to get rid of the smell from the clams. I wanted to buy some pure ammonia but Ace Hardware stores in my area are closed on Sunday's and I haven't been able to find it in other stores. I spent some time searching for more information about using flake fish food to create ammonia for good bacteria to feed on during fishless cycling. Also read that fish food facilitates the growth of saprotropic bacteria. Without saprotropic the cycling process can stall. The problem is not knowing how much fish food to put in the tank. So I put in 20 flakes of TetraMin tropical crisps yesterday morning. With flake food, the tank doesn't smell as it spoils and creates ammonia. I plan to put in 20 flakes each day and test the ammonia. I expect it to take longer to cycle when using fish food that it would take if I were using pure ammonia because the food has to spoil to create ammonia.

Here are the details of the tank:
Type - Freshwater
Size - 180 liter (about 48 gallon) it's the Fluval Vicenza bow front
Filter - Fluval 205 canister (I have bio balls in the top tray, nothing in the middle tray and carbon in the bottom tray. 4 sponges in the sponge section.)
Heaters - one 100 watt Fluval and one 150 watt top fin
Temperature - 86F to speed the cycling process. I'll lower it to 80F after cycling.
Air - 36" bubble curtain and top fin Air-4000 pump
Substrate - sand (and two large rocks to provide surface for the bacteria)

Testing from late yesterday (I use the API liquid test kits):
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Nitrates 10ppm - water is from tap
PH - 7.6+ - it's off the API chart and comes to us that way from our local water system - later I'll add driftwood to lower it. I've had success with lowering our PH with malaysian driftwood.

If anyone has any ideas or links to fishless cycling information, please post. I'll keep updating. I just don't want to cause harm to any fish by cycling with fish.
 
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