starting the cycle in a new fish tank?

Question

okay, so say i have everything set up in my tank. now i want to start the cycle so i can have fish.

what exactly do i need to do? tank is 20 gallons.
only thing i know is that i need to wait a few weeks before i can put fish in it.

sorry. its a fresh water tank. and i dont really want fish to die so i guess id be doing a fishless cycle? and i dont know anyone that already has gravel or anything that has all that good bacteria and etc.

so basically what i do is, fill it up, putt in the conditooner that came with my aquarium kit, and then put some food in it as if i was feeding fish for a few weeks and check the levels of everything? what should all the toxins and etc. read at? like how low/high should they all be.

Answer 1

I see some input here that is a little off. I'll say that I've used fish in most all of my tanks, and had very little deaths. The zebra danios and white clouds I used on my first tank this year, back in feb are still alive, and did 2 other tanks for me. I don't see how cruel that is myself but oh well. I've only done a fishless once, and wasn't the traditional fishless really. Once I had my other tanks up, I just simply used the media from those filters for the biological filtration of my main tank a 180 gallons. Outside of that, I've always used fish.

Fish or not, the more likely projection is 6-8 weeks. At four weeks, if you are seeing a total 0 in ammonia and nitrite, be careful. Your tank may not well be stable at this point. Once you do have a 0 reading on both, you need to stock the tank with the fish you want very slowly. Acclimate 1-2 fish a week to allow your bacteria to stay stable.

Either way, you use ammonia pure, or add some fish, and this will be your ammonia source. It takes about 10-14 days before you'll see your ammonia drop and 0 out. Then you'll be in the same phase as nitrites. This will take about 2-4 weeks. Once you are reading 0 ammonia and nitrite, you're pretty much set to go, but you need to ramp the population up in there very slow, or you're liable to see ammonia and nitrite back in the water, as your biological filtration is only grown to handle x amount of ammonia and nitrite. If the fish you add contribute more ammonia then the bacteria can oxidize, then you're going to see ammonia back in your water. That's why you ramp up slowly.

Answer 2

The nitrifying bacteria are present in the air all the time. If you have another tank running you can give the cycle a small boost with some of the gravel or filter media from an old, well cycled tank. Since you have everything running set the temperature in the high 70's or low 80's,make sure there's lots of aeration,and add about 1/2 tsp. of plain ammonia (generic cheap stuff with no additives),then wait a few days and check the ammonia levels,if it's low add a little more ammonia (another 1/2 tsp.) Wait about a week,and check again. The ammonia should be fairly low,so begin checking for Nitrites,it will take another week or two,but you should see the Nitrite numbers decreasing also. When you see the Nitrate numbers begin to rise you will have a cycled tank,lower the temperatures to the mid 70's and add two or three fish. Wait about 10 days and add a few more fish,this is so the bacteria colonies you have grown will have time to adjust to the increasing bio-load.
The reason this process takes so long is that the bacteria colonies must grow on solid surfaces to do their work,just being present in the water is not enough. You are to be commended for having the patience to do fishless cycling. It is truly more humane and actually faster than cycling with fish,because you can run the ammonia levels higher than fish would tolerate. Good luck,and enjoy your fish.

Answer 3

Depends if you want a fishless cycle or one using fish.

Fishless:

Add a couple of pinches of food. Leave. A week later, add another pinch. Continue checking water parameters until ammonia and nitrites are 0 and nitrates are under 40.

With fish:

'Chuck fish in'. Really not recommended, as it's cruel to the fish, and potentially fatal. Very stressful for the fish and takes much more work on your part. Another thing is, the common ones to cycle your tank with (mollies/guppies/platies) may not be what you plan to have in your tank full term.

I'd go for fishless, it only takes 4 weeks, pretty much the same as with fish.

Like someone else mentioned, try to get some established gravel or filter media to 'jump start' your tank, should take at least a week (possibly 2 weeks) off your cycle.

EDIT:

I really don't know why I'm getting thumbs down for this answer - probably people that have done cycles with fish. Just because they survive through it doesn't mean it isn't cruel.

PS. I mentioned about the levels you need. You'll get a spike of ammonia, then nitrite, then it should level out (you may well get another spike of both) so that the ammonia and nitrite are 0 and the nitrate is under 40.

Answer 4

Just out of curiosity, what kind of fish are you planning to keep in that 20 gallon tank?

The reason I ask is because some fish species are so hardy and have such a small waste output that they can easily manage the first cycle, in fact helping the first cycle along, that you could just set up your tank NEARLY right away. Keyword there is "nearly".

Set up whatever you want in it, plants rocks, gravel, funny little burping squid ... whatever.

Set up your filter, heater (if your fish of choice require one, I typically set one up anyway just in case), and the of course check the pH.

A fresh tank really shouldn't have any other real wastes like ammonia in it, unless you have plumbing problems of course. Then research the types of fish you want, find out what kind of pH that fish requires and make your tank match it.

After that you could do a staged fish introduction to the tank. Lets say you wanted to keep ten Zebra Danio in there. OK, not a problem ... they're hardy and don't produce too much waste. So buy five and let the five swim around happy as a plum for three/four weeks. Make sure your pH and temp is correct and check the ammonia levels ... probably won't be very high all.

Before you know it your tank is cycled and ready for a higher population.

Sounds pretty simply, the most important thing is don't rush into populating your fish tank.

Answer 5

First question I have is, is it fresh water or salt?

Both require you to cycle them before putting fish in, but there are differences in how you stock them after that.

Fresh water: Cycle your tank for two weeks. Then try starting with some live aquatic plants. If the plants do OK drop in your preferred fish and go. Get a testing kit and keep it well maintained based upon the results.

Salt water: Cycle your tank for one month. Purchase some Coral Vital by Mark Weiss and start dosing your tank the second week. At the one month mark start by adding hermit crabs and continue to dose the tank with the coral vital. Introduce your preferred marine fish after a week of the hermit crabs being in there. Get a testing kit and keep it well maintained based upon the results. Remember that salt water tanks are no harder to maintain--the fish are just more expensive.

Good luck,

Answer 6

You have options. If you have old gravel from an established tank, you can put a scoop in there and just let it sit with the filter running.

Alternately, buy some guppies... I'd say no more than 2-3, and probably all male to avoid potential guppy population explosions. Guppies are hardy enough to survive in an uncycled tank, and they will contribute the necessary waste bacteria to get the cycle going.

Answer 7

Thawed uncooked shrimp works nicely. upload a pair products of uncooked shrimp or one million-2 table spoons of fish nutrition. this could take some days for it to start to rot and bring ammonia. do no longer enable the ammonia get to 8ppm using fact the effective bacteria has situation working with that plenty ammonia. If it does, do a 50% water replace. improve your tank temp to 87F to speed up the bacteria turning out to be technique. reveal screen the ammonia and nitrite stages. shop including shrimp/nutrition if the ammonia drops. Ammonia could desire to pass up and nitrites and nitrates would be 0. then you definately could desire to be certain readings for ammonia and nitrites. upload nutrition whilst this takes place, you like a relentless ammonia source. Then no ammonia, yet nevertheless nitrites. whilst ammonia = 0, nitrites = 0, and nitrates greater advantageous than 10ppm. Do a 50% water replace and upload fish after the water replace.

Answer 8

i would agree.... let the tank go for a week and in the mean time get a few little guppys maybe some danio's great for setting up a tank if these fish survive a week in the tank your ready to go...