Fishless cycling an aquarium.?

Question

I have decided to experiment with fishless cycling. It is driving me crazy that it is taking so long for the nitrItes and nitrAtes to come down to the correct parameters.

It has only been a little over two weeks but it seems like a month has passed!

To those who have done this before, how long did it take you and will you continue with this method of cycling your tanks?

To answer some of the questions: This is for a FWT, not Salt water. Also, I did read up on the ways to do it adding either ammonia to get it at 5 ppm, or fish food, can't remember the 3rd way. I chose the ammonia and added too darn much.

So I added some charcoal to help absorb the ammonia, and some prime, which helped then some amquel because it is suppose to help the new cycling tanks.

Now the ammonia is at .25 trites 2 and trates 3. I added 3 live plants yesterday remembering that they add co2.

The water looks so nice and clear, and it is so toxic, lol. I don't want to add a suicide fish either, been there done that and lost too many fish. I was really sad about that.

I have two 55 gallon FWT, We let them run a couple of weeks, added a fish, waited 2 weeks and added a couple more, so far water checks out perfectly.

But we learned about new fish dying syndrome with our first 10 gallon tanks, :-(.

Answer 1

Remember you are trying to rush mother nature here by doing in a few weeks what takes years. The quickest way to cycle a FWT is to toss in a few pieces of raw or frozen fish or shrimp. They will decay quickly and you will see spikes in your ammonia and nitrates. They will however level out quickly. Not doing a water change while this is happening will also allow the toxic tank to produce more bacteria more quickly in an attempt to adjust to the bio load.

Putting a used filter from another tank does nothing for maturing bacteria in your tank. Even a scoop of gravel wont make much of a difference at this point.

Toss in the fish. give it a few days then test your water. You will see a big change very quickly.

Answer 2

Tammy if you have other tanks then the best way to speed up the cycle is to introduce bacteria already grown rather then wait for it. You can easily do this by taking some of the filter media from the other tanks and putting it into the filter of the new tanks. If you knew somebody with a really big tank then you would be able to fill up your filter with media from theirs and the cycle would be almost instantly completed (or sometimes a fish store will give or sell their customers media).

Bio-Spira is a bottled bacteria that has gotten good results - it's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's the next best thing. Makes sure if you go this route that the bottle is refrigerated when you buy it and until you use it.

Lastly, warm up the water to the mid 80's - the warmer water speeds up the bacteria growth and you can just cool it back down before adding livestock. Make sure water movement at the surface is good though, because the bacteria also needs oxygen, which the water holds less of at warmer temps.

There is nothing in the tank that will take care of nitrates. The plants will help a bit but the rest must be removed manually through water changes.

Answer 3

The fishless cycle process can take up to 3 weeks depending on the process and, if something isn't being done quite right, i.e, adding too much ammonia or any catalyst that starts the process or too low of heat, it could take longer. I'm assuming you read up on it though, so I'm assuming you're doing it according to those directions. But, if you gave more specifics of how you are doing it, maybe we could pick out the details. I would definitely continue using it no matter how difficult it ever might be because I cannot justify using suicide fish.

Answer 4

you are able to fishless cycle with a small volume of water from a properly familiar tank and a few plant life. The decay from the plant life will furnish adequate ammonia to maintain the bloom. different chems no longer required.

Answer 5

Change the water and leave the filter alone for a while. It is almost done cycling. Wait another week or so, its worth it!

Answer 6

Put some cheap damsels in your tank. also you can get some live bacteria at a good pet shop it comes in little pouches. see if pet store will sell you some substrate out one of there established tanks. hope that helped. I put damsels in my tank the day i put water in it never lost a fish. still have them and that was 2 years ago

Answer 7

Have you tried some live plants of a tough and hardy variety? They will help drag those levels down for you.

Answer 8

No matter what you do, Until you have fish in there, it will never completely even out. Yes, some of your first fish will die, so i recommend something cheap to get the tank cycled.