Cycling 55 gal fishless tank - few questions

[punky]

Hi, just added water and setup filter. Should I change water everynow and then or leave it for the bacteria to settle? How long approx. does it take to cycle?

Thanks.

 

[maxwell1295]

There is really no need to change water during a fishless cycle.....not until you are at the very end of the cycle and nitrates are really high. At that point, you do one big PWC to bring the nitrates down to a reasonable level. Until then just keep your ammonia in the 2-4 ppm range.

 

[SCFatz]

4-6 weeks.You will need an ammonia source to get it started and a test kit to test the progress (liquid test kits are better).

 

[punky]

What ammonia source do you recommend? I have a test kit no worries.

 

[SCFatz]

An uncooked shrimp will do it to start...get a raw one from the store and drop it in there ...as it decays the ammonia will level wil rise...

Pure ammonia (zero detergents) from a hardware store will work great too....I've read shake it and look for no surface bubbles as well as read the label.Pure is the key here....but it works great (same difference as the shrimp without the decay).

 

[rich311k]

You can also use fishfood. Takes a little longer to get ammonia but it is easy to lay your hands on and doesn't look as ugly as a decaying shrimp. i did by last one by throwing in a bunch of tubifex cubes. Fish dont like them anyway thought I might as well get some use out of them.

 

[punky]

Thanks for the replies Do products like tetra safestart work?