Fishless Cycling

[jason longboard]

Fishless cycling...

It has come to my attention, that there several times that I have had to explain "Fishless Cycling".

Every new tank, with new filtration, has to be cycled to be safe for aquatic life. What is meant by "cycled"?
"Cycled" is a reference to the Nitrogen cycle. This is the bio filtration that happens in our filters.
In short,
"Ammonia" (toxic fish waste) is converted by bacteria into
"Nitrite" (toxic as well) then converted by a second type of bacteria into
"Nitrate"(basicaly harmless in low concentrations) that gasses off in the Aquarium.

This read is not for the advanced water chemist, this read is directed to
those fishkeepers that do not know what the nitrogen cycle is, and have had problems with keeping fish alive and well in their new tanks and with new filtration...

OK to start off there are a few things that you are going to have to have PERIOD...
1)Water test kit (Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate)
2)patience
3)Commitment to cycle the tank completely
4)Pure household Ammonia (clear w/no soaps or fragrance)
a)shake bottle- if there are bubbles - no good
if it looks like water - way good
5)Aquarium needing cycling with the water set to 85 degrees F.
6)Filtration, installed and working properly.

First thing, first...
Bacteria thrives in water over 80 degrees F.
Make sure to set the temp to 85 degrees F.

Next you need to know how much water you have. Use the conversion chart here http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/calc.php

Once you determine how much water you have in the system, de-chlorinated the water with a de-chlorinator that does not contain anything that says "eliminates ammonia etc." I use stresscoat and I know that works.

Now, you'll add 5 DROPS of Ammonia per 10 gallons, no more no less. Pick a time of day that you'll be able to take readings, everyday, for a couple of weeks.

Do this everyday until you see a measurable amount of Nitrites.
When you have a Nitrite reading, this means you have started the nitrogen cycle and are effectively growing the Beneficial Bacteria, that converts the Ammonia into Nitrite. We are half way there.

Now you will lower the amount of Ammonia to 3 drops per 10 gallons per day. You will do this until you get a reading of
0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrites. ZERO means ZERO, no matter how long it takes to get there. You are now building the Bacteria that converts the Nitrite into Nitrate.

Ok, so now we are adding 3 drops per 10 gallons of water daily.
We are getting a reading of Zero Ammonia / Zero Nitrite and we have a Nitrate reading of 20-40 ppm. You are almost there.

You need to do a 50% waterchange with de-chlorinated water and adjust your temperature. Now is the time to get your fish. Acclimate them and get them in your properly cycled tank...enjoy them as they will be enjoying your correct water parameters...

I hope this gets you on the right track right off...If you have any questions PM me, I'll be glad to help out...

Ok check it out,

ammonia between 0.25-0.35

nitrite 5.0

nitrate 160

125 gallon

how long do I got about? Never did it this way, interesting. Seems its been 2 weeks and a few days.

 

[jgjoneslaw]

What kind of filtration do you have? Judging from your results you're adding too much ammonia for your filters so there is not enough bacteria to process it all which is why you have skyrocketing nitrate yet you're still showing ammonia and nitrite as well. Are you using the liquid API kits? The strips can be very inaccurate.

 

[jason longboard]

What kind of filtration do you have? Judging from your results you're adding too much ammonia for your filters so there is not enough bacteria to process it all which is why you have skyrocketing nitrate yet you're still showing ammonia and nitrite as well. Are you using the liquid API kits? The strips can be very inaccurate.

the aqua clear 110 just for now to get it started, not enough? I was going to add another in a few weeks. Im using the 30 something buck test kit with the glass tubes and the droppers like I always had good results with. maybe I should just lay off the ammonia now?

 

[jason longboard]

 

[jason longboard]

bump

 

[jgjoneslaw]

Yeah I think you should dial down the ammonia and/or add a sponge filter for additional biological filtration if funds are tight or add a canister filter if they aren't. I don't think an AC 110 is going to be enough filtration for a tank your size by itself. HOB filters like the AC 110 are best for mechanical filtration not biological. This is one reason I don't like the fishless cycle method that just has you add drops of ammonia every day until you get nitrites. I prefer the method where you measure how much ammonia it takes to get get to 4ppm of ammonia and then just make sure you keep it at 4ppm until you get nitrite.

 

[jason longboard]

Yeah I think you should dial down the ammonia and/or add a sponge filter for additional biological filtration if funds are tight or add a canister filter if they aren't. I don't think an AC 110 is going to be enough filtration for a tank your size by itself. HOB filters like the AC 110 are best for mechanical filtration not biological. This is one reason I don't like the fishless cycle method that just has you add drops of ammonia every day until you get nitrites. I prefer the method where you measure how much ammonia it takes to get get to 4ppm of ammonia and then just make sure you keep it at 4ppm until you get nitrite.

well just to be clear I was in no way going to leave the 110 only with fish, was planning on another 110 or something else with it, most likely a smaller ehiem, but I thought this one would be fine to get the cycle going. Well I will ponder this all. Thanks bud.

 

[jason longboard]

the lfs gave me about 30 oz of water and muck squeezed from one of his healthy tanks so I dumped that in mine. SHould this help speed it up? I should have just started it this way, getting antsy sheesh.

 

[jgjoneslaw]

You already have nitrate in your tank so that muck from the lfs I don't think is going to help you. The muck is good for starting a tank because a new tank doesn't have nitrate present in it yet. You already have plenty of nitrate but you don't have enough filtration material for the bacteria to process all of that ammonia and nitrite in your tank into enough nitrate which is why you are still reading ammonia and nitrite. You need to either reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank with water changes, and/or add filtration so that more bacteria can form to process that extra ammonia/nitrite into nitrate.

 

[BMac91]

the lfs gave me about 30 oz of water and muck squeezed from one of his healthy tanks so I dumped that in mine. SHould this help speed it up? I should have just started it this way, getting antsy sheesh.

No, it will not help. Dirty water is just that, dirty water. The only way the lfs could have helped you was by giving you some gravel from one of their established tanks or giving you filter media from one of their established filters. Dirty water has no significance to the cycling process. This is a very common misconception. I would just ask if there was a way to purchase some media from them that is healthy and cycled (chances are that they will not just give it away) and once you have something that has been cycled (take it home in their tank water) then be sure to continue feeding the BB already on water you were able to get from the lfs. Still do as posted above a do a water change to get those levels back down, and if funds allowed it, I would go ahead and add the filtration that will be present when living things are added to the tank, that way they will have both had a head start and you aren't just running off of one cycled filter.