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Fishless Cycling
12 years ago
If you're a beginner aquarist, or an aspiring aquarist doing research to properly keep your fishy friends, you've probably heard this term pop up a few times.
Fishless cycling is the process of growing the beneficial bacteria to keep your fish safe, without putting the fish in the tank first.
Now, this does not mean running the tank for a week without fish, this is a common myth.
Running the tank with no fish will have no beneficial effects aside from stabilizing the perimeters. but the tank itself is not necessarily safe for the fish.
The filter still needs to grow a beneficial bacteria to remove the ammonia and nitrite from the water. Ammonia is produced through decaying organic matter, solid waste from the fish, and decomposing food that was left uneaten by the fish are two factors. It also needs to be kept in mind that fish, through respiration, produce ammonia as well. The act of the fish breathing in the oxygen from the water releases ammonia in return.
The act of the bacteria growing in your filter can take anywhere from a couple weeks to several months depending on your water conditions. Your tank is not fully mature until up to a year and a half of being ran
Ammonia and nitrite burn the gills of your fish as well as irritates their skin. The burning of the gills can cause permanent damage to the fish's respiratory system.
I know this is a lot to digest, but keep this in mind
Ammonia and Nitrite Are Bad
With that said, there is now a simple method to make sure your tank can take care of ammonia and nitrite before you add fish to it. You simply add your own ammonia.
What You'll Need:
Bottled Ammonia with no surfactant. Surfactant is soap, it'll inhibit the growth of your beneficial bateria. I got my bottled ammonia from Ace Hardware. A way to test for surfactant is to shake the bottle. If it bubbles, that's bad.
You'll also need a good syringe or eye dropper to properly dose the ammonia in your tank.
A good reliable test kit. Unfortunately, Test Strips are not a reliable test kit. You'll want a liquid test kit. Test strips give a general idea of what your water is at, but for a fishless cycle, you need the results as accurate as possible. API supplies a master test kit that'll cost around 20-35 dollars that'll last you several years, and is perfect for fishless cycling. Nutrafin supplies a line of liquid test kits as well.
Patience. This stuff doesn't happen over night.
How It's Done:
Simple. You dose the ammonia to reach 3-5 ppm. I like to rest in the middle at 4ppm, to allow breathing room. If the ammonia goes above 5 ppm, it will not grow the proper bacteria
With the Ace Hardware Janitorial Strength Ammonia, I safely dosed about 1 ml per 20 gallons of water. Make sure you are dosing the water volume, not tank volume. Plenty of water will be displaced through decorations and substrate. Keep in mind plenty of factors go into how much you dose, especially the tank volume and the % of ammonia is in the solution you bought.
Experimentation may be necessary to reach your desired level of ammonia.
Now, you just wait. Test your tank once a day, and eventually, you'll see the nitrites rise, and ammonia fall. You can choose to always redose the ammonia to your desired level of ppm whenever it lowers, or to only redose when you reach 0 ppm of ammonia.
If a perimeter is growing uncomfortably high, feel free to do a large water change and dose. I prefer to keep nitrite below 8 ppm during the fishless cycle.
After a while, you'll begin to see nitrite lowering as well, and nitrates growing extremely high. This is good, you're almost there, and you have the bacteria in the tank. Don't hop into fish quite yet.
Again, feel free to do a water change if you're getting nasty levels of nitrate.
Continue this process of dosing the ammonia and changing the water until you clear the ammonia and nitrite into nitrate within 24 hours.
When you go from ammonia to nitrate within a 24 hour period, do a large water change, as close to 100% as possible, refill, dechlorinate, and go get your fish ASAP. The bacteria slowly dies without a food source. Try to get fish in the tank within 6 hours of finishing your cycle.
Happy Fish Keeping
-onidrase
Fishless cycling is the process of growing the beneficial bacteria to keep your fish safe, without putting the fish in the tank first.
Now, this does not mean running the tank for a week without fish, this is a common myth.
Running the tank with no fish will have no beneficial effects aside from stabilizing the perimeters. but the tank itself is not necessarily safe for the fish.
The filter still needs to grow a beneficial bacteria to remove the ammonia and nitrite from the water. Ammonia is produced through decaying organic matter, solid waste from the fish, and decomposing food that was left uneaten by the fish are two factors. It also needs to be kept in mind that fish, through respiration, produce ammonia as well. The act of the fish breathing in the oxygen from the water releases ammonia in return.
The act of the bacteria growing in your filter can take anywhere from a couple weeks to several months depending on your water conditions. Your tank is not fully mature until up to a year and a half of being ran
Ammonia and nitrite burn the gills of your fish as well as irritates their skin. The burning of the gills can cause permanent damage to the fish's respiratory system.
I know this is a lot to digest, but keep this in mind
Ammonia and Nitrite Are Bad
With that said, there is now a simple method to make sure your tank can take care of ammonia and nitrite before you add fish to it. You simply add your own ammonia.
What You'll Need:
Bottled Ammonia with no surfactant. Surfactant is soap, it'll inhibit the growth of your beneficial bateria. I got my bottled ammonia from Ace Hardware. A way to test for surfactant is to shake the bottle. If it bubbles, that's bad.
You'll also need a good syringe or eye dropper to properly dose the ammonia in your tank.
A good reliable test kit. Unfortunately, Test Strips are not a reliable test kit. You'll want a liquid test kit. Test strips give a general idea of what your water is at, but for a fishless cycle, you need the results as accurate as possible. API supplies a master test kit that'll cost around 20-35 dollars that'll last you several years, and is perfect for fishless cycling. Nutrafin supplies a line of liquid test kits as well.
Patience. This stuff doesn't happen over night.
How It's Done:
Simple. You dose the ammonia to reach 3-5 ppm. I like to rest in the middle at 4ppm, to allow breathing room. If the ammonia goes above 5 ppm, it will not grow the proper bacteria
With the Ace Hardware Janitorial Strength Ammonia, I safely dosed about 1 ml per 20 gallons of water. Make sure you are dosing the water volume, not tank volume. Plenty of water will be displaced through decorations and substrate. Keep in mind plenty of factors go into how much you dose, especially the tank volume and the % of ammonia is in the solution you bought.
Experimentation may be necessary to reach your desired level of ammonia.
Now, you just wait. Test your tank once a day, and eventually, you'll see the nitrites rise, and ammonia fall. You can choose to always redose the ammonia to your desired level of ppm whenever it lowers, or to only redose when you reach 0 ppm of ammonia.
If a perimeter is growing uncomfortably high, feel free to do a large water change and dose. I prefer to keep nitrite below 8 ppm during the fishless cycle.
After a while, you'll begin to see nitrite lowering as well, and nitrates growing extremely high. This is good, you're almost there, and you have the bacteria in the tank. Don't hop into fish quite yet.
Again, feel free to do a water change if you're getting nasty levels of nitrate.
Continue this process of dosing the ammonia and changing the water until you clear the ammonia and nitrite into nitrate within 24 hours.
When you go from ammonia to nitrate within a 24 hour period, do a large water change, as close to 100% as possible, refill, dechlorinate, and go get your fish ASAP. The bacteria slowly dies without a food source. Try to get fish in the tank within 6 hours of finishing your cycle.
Happy Fish Keeping
-onidrase
