Can I cycle my aquarium this way?
by Aquaboy on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 | 4 Comments
This is my aquarium..
A 10 Gallon Aquarium with an undergravel filter, heater, and lighting system. Decorated with hot green gravel (to look like grass), 4 medium sized artificial plants, and an underwater volcano in the center of the tank. With 6 Cardinal Tetra and 1 ghost shrimp.
The first day I get all this (minus the fish). I will..
1. Turn the temp to 78F.
2. Add dechlor to the water.
3. Turn the filter on.
4. Put some fish flakes in there (it has something to do with the nitrogen?)
5. do that for 3 days.
6. Then add fish.
Is that it? I don’t know much about cycling?
no kits!
i can buy ammonia?
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Though you do have the right idea, it does need to be tweaked. Assuming you go with your current plan there will be ammonia in your aquarium when you add the fish and shrimp- that is a problem. Cardinal tetras are sensitive to poor water quality, and I would only suggest adding them to a fully established aquarium.
The nitrogen cycle deals with ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Understanding this cycle is a huge help when keeping an aquarium. You add that fish food to mimic fish waste so that you can begin the cycle. That’s your ammonia. Over time beneficial bacteria builds up to break the ammonia down, and it becomes nitrites. Nitrites are still bad for fish, so another type of bacteria breaks it down into nitrates. Nitrates are removed during weekly partial water changes.
Aquarium cycling takes weeks, not days. Please read this site on fishless cycling- http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/misc/fishlesscycling.html
~Pure ammonia can be bought and used to cycle an aquarium. I just bought a small canister of flake food for about $1.49.
Please read your other question for my answer regarding water testing materials.
No, it take 6-8 weeks before you ad fish.
You set it all up.
You turn the temp to 84 (bacteria like hot)
Turn on the filter.
Add amonia to the tank so it decomposes to nitrogen.
Get a home test kit.
When the parameters constantly read:
nitRITE 0-15
nirate 0
amonia 0
The you can ad fish
Hey,
Putting pure ammonia in teh tank will be no use unless you can buy a test kit. You have to get the ammonia to within 3-5ppm, and if you go to high then you’ll stall the process. Without a test kit it would be impossible.
So you need to cycle either with fish flakes or any rotting food, or with fish.
Fish flakes will do it, or shove some prawns into a stocking and put it into the tank.
The fish flakes and prawns will rot releasing ammonia to start feeding the bacteria which will begin to colonise. Adding pure ammonia achieves the same result.
The other option is to cycle with fish choosing some hardy fish such as danios, certain tetras (lemon tetra for instance) and then feeding the tank sparingly and doing a weekly water change. After a month you can begin adding other fish slowly. But you would not need to put fish food into the tank before adding teh fish, as the fish will create the waste, i.e. the ammonia, which will start to feed the bacteria.
So you can get the initial ammonia source from pure ammonia, rotting food, or fish. Choose one option.
If you’re putting food into teh tank to cycle it, then you need to not put fish in until the tank is definitely cycled. Again, without a test kit this would be difficult. So I say cycle the tank with fish.
Add a small number of hardy fish (your local fish shop should be able to advise on which fish are best “starter” fish and how many you can stock in your tank. Then feed *sparingly* for the first few weeks, as excess food can quickly increase the ammonia levels, which is what you are trying to avoid.
There are two sets of bacteria that need to develop in the tank. The first set munches on ammonia and produces nitrite as its waste. Ammonia is poisenous to fish, nitrite is poisenous too. Then another set munches on the nitrite and produces nitrate. The nitrate is tolerated well and is ultimately removed, or diluted when you do water changes.
When you put an ammonia source in the tank (from ammonia, fish or rotting food) the bacteria starts to colonise. If you were testing the tank daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, you’d see at the beginning there’s 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte and 0 nitrAte. After a couple of weeks you’d see there’s some ammonia, 5ppm ammonia, 0 nitrIte, 0 nitrAte. A couple of weeks after you’d start to see ammonia drop to 0 because the bacteria is munching it, but there’d be a reading for nitrIte. And nitrAte is 0. Because there’s now a nitrIte source, from the waste of the first set of bacteria, the second set of bacteria can colonise. After awhile, ammonia will be zero, nitrIte will be 0 and you’ll have a reading for nitrAte. Voilla. The cycle is complete, and when the fish produce waste the two sets of bacteria will quickly render it harmless by first converting it to nitrite, and then to nitrate.
*phew*
I have set up numerous aquariums in a former job. I have set up tanks as large as 300 gallons (custom order http://www.glasscages.com/?sAction=ViewCat&lCatID=2) we always used “scout fish” in freshwater, that means danio or white cloud mountain minnows. You use 1 for every 5-10 gallons. They are cheap. They are tough. They will cycle a tank. I remember doing a 265 gallon (84x24x30) that was the home of several severums eventually. The tank was started with six Giant Danios. After 3 weeks, the tank had not had a spike in nitrates yet, a sign you are cycled, so we added six more. The tank cycled in about 3 weeks. 10 of 12 Giant Danios survived. Rather than remove them, they were left with the Severums and this has worked out extremely well. Not everyone wants to keep “scout fish” but they can be appreciated too. I’d start with a pair of White Clouds in a 10 gallon aquarium. I’d eventually bring the total to 5-6. This is the perfect small tank newbie fish.