what is the best way to cycle your tank, from start to finish?
by Aquaboy on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | 5 Comments
i have a new aquarium, i have all the supplies. i was wondering if it is best to cycle the tank with a fish, or just flake food, or with chemicals. best as in fastest accurate cycling
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I’ve been told zebra danios are hearty starter fish.
Also, the people at the pet store can answer your questions.
Ok, you are embarking on a fun journey and you need some patience. I cycled my 29 gallon in 12 days. http://www.jabberwocky.ca/~kaos is the log for my tank to get an idea of what it should look like. If you want to do a fishless cycle like I did and it is the fastest, and most humane way then you will need a test kit and some ammonia. I got mine from ace hardware and it was 10% ammonium hydroxide which is a usable kind for this situation. Follow the instructions on this page
http://aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86012&highlight=tips+fastest+fishless+cycling
and you cannot really go wrong. You will have times that you seem lost but don’t worry, it goes alright. You really need to get some seed material as it says to increase the speed otherwise it will take much longer. if you get the same strength ammonia then it took about 10 drops of it to make about a .5 ppm difference in my ammonia level, you can scall that to get a good starting point on your tank. I really do suggest that you do a fishless cycle, and when you are done you can put all the fish in there that you planned on. Also try not to overload as many do and that will cause more problems in the end.
The reason it is best to do fishless is because it does not damage the fish, even fish that live thru a cycle that can take up to 3 months doing it the old fashion way wil have damaged gills and liver and will shorten its life drastically and it will not be so active and healthy and will be more disease prone. That is also bad for any other fish you put in tere afterwards, You can feel free to email me with anything you want to ask, my email should be accessible thru my profile.
Hope this informatien helps.
There are many ways, and none are the best – it comes down to bias and preference.
The fastest way to cycle a fish tank is to add living bacteria to the tank. Any gravel or fiter media from a mature tank will have this bacteria. The more you get the better, and if you get enough the cycle will be instant! Add this bacteria at the same time as adding fish and make sure it stays wet till you use it. The more fish you want to add at once, the more established media you will need. Even if you do a fishless cycle, this method will speed it up a ton.
Aside from that, bacteria will grow quickest for you if you keep the tank warm (low 80′s) and make sure there is lots of water and surface movement.
For cycling with fish, start off with just a few fish to play it safe. Figure on about 2 small fish (an inch or less) for every 10 gallons of water to start the cycle and keep them safe. Then don’t add any fish for a month and feed lightly the whole time. Then start adding your new fish a couple at a time, allowing a week between additions for bacteria to catch up. It’s safest to test for Ammonia and Nitrites before you make new additions, just to make sure. Cycling with fish gets a bad rap online lately, but most people still do it this way in real life and by taking it slowly it’s easy to do it without harming the fish.
If you cycle with food it will work, though you can expect high nitrates, phosphates, and cloudiness and will need to clean things up before adding fish. Better then food for a fishless cycle is bottled ammonia (the type without soap or perfume in it) because it’s cleaner – you still want to do a nice big water change before adding fish though to clear up the excess nitrates.
Don’t ask the pet store for advise – it’s a good way to get bad information. Especially in the big chain stores. Do your own research and you’ll go in knowing much more than they do.
It really does come down to preference and the timeline you are on. Some folks prefer fishless cycling as they feel it is more favorable to the animal. I myself have 5 tanks ranging from 2 G to 55 G dotted all around my house and I love Bio Spira. I wouldn’t say it works overnight as the instructions indicate but it does cut the time from 4-8 weeks to 1-2 weeks and you can add your fish right away.
When I got my new tank I was told to take the filter from my other tank, place it in panty hose and put it in the new tank. I guess the crap in the filter helps cycle the tank. But I wasn’t sure if that would really work or not so I bought some chemical (not sure on the name) to help cycle it.