Tank Cycle

[edas]

Hey

I am about to start cycling my tank and wanted to know of any experiences doing a fishless cycle? I was planning on the tried and tested method of using inexpensive goldfish but was concerned with adding disease into the tank.

Thanks.

Edas

[Richard]

Hey mate;

I did a fishless cycle on my 6x2x2 with discus a while back. I just bought two bottles of this live bacteria, some aquariums should stock it, aswell as that i bought ammonia which is some sort of surface cleaner i think.

All i did was pop in some caps of ammonia and the two bottles of live bacteria, the bacteria were two types, not too sure the names of them but it was two of the same type of bacteria ( sorry if im confusing you ) . I then tested for nitrite, nitrate and ammonia everyday until everything was 0ppm, this took about 2 weeks or so, after that i was ready to set up my tank, ofcourse i didn't throw some expnsive discus in right away, instead i threw in some other tropicals i had and they did fine.

hope that explains some of it.

cheers; Richard

[JamesF]

I've been cycling 2 tanks the lastcouple of weeks, 3ft and 2ft. They have had a couple of yellows in each and BN. They have been fine. I'll be stocking them up in a week or so, had no major fluctuations in water quality.

[saudukar]

Just add in some bacteria culture and a small slice of frozen fish fillet.

As the fish fillet decays it will give off the stuff the bacteria will survive on in the time being.

Using dead fish to keep bacteria cultures alive in an ole trick. Its better if the WHOLE fish is there but a fillet will do in pickle.

Live fish are better but you cant get around the diesease thing.

[Caesar]

Hey mate,

When I moved down here to melbourne I done a fishless cycle on all my tanks. All you need to use is a liquid bacterial culture (Cycle would do). I put plenty of this in the tank and just add some fish food (flake) which also does the trick.

No loses on my fish. Just remmebr when you do stock your tank to only feed small amounts and don't overstock until you have a good bacteria culture working in you filter.

Ave

Jason

[edas]

Thanks guys

I might look into this fishless cycle a bit more. I know of a few articles posted on various sites. Really interested in hearing from people who have put this into practice. Any cons with doing it this way?

Cheers

Edas

[dyclops]

A fishless cycle in the most pure senese is only adding ammonia (you want pure stuff).

The Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas are everywhere (they perform the Nitrogen cycle). They are everywhere in the environment, most abundant in soil. Some cells should make their way into your tank and begin the process. Establishment at required levels can take weeks-months.

I have done a study on "commercially' availalbe cultures and have found them to be pretty much rubbish. If you want to speed up the process, I recommend asking a mate or someone on here, for a squeeze of a non-diseased filter and or some substrate.

Mitch

[Guest parallel]

Hi dyclops

When you said for a squeeze of a non-diseased filter. Do you mean squeeze the water into the new tank?

Cheers

Parallel

[spedwards]

or some substrate

←

On that note, I visited an LFS that was selling cycled substrate on the weekend. First time I'd seen it, but I thought it was an interesting idea.

[Simonauv]

I use to keep a number of filter sponges going in a sump or something similar and when setting up a new tank place the mature sponge in the new tank to kick start it. In most cases it avoids the cycle altogether.

[dyclops]

Yes. Squeeze the filter media into the tank. However this is not very effective. Filters are pretty good gunk collectors. The bacteria colonies are vast on the glass, rocks, substrate, heater. Probably the best way to do it is get a toothbrush and agitate everything a bit and then add some of that water.