fishles cycle not possible?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

imrandome1

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
454
Location
UK
Hi all.

Hallo, im sorry to say my first topic is a question, but nevertheless an important one. I started my tank about 2 weeks ago, give or take a day and added some "Biological aquarium supplement" and some tetra-mini-crisps, to start the cycle, so far the results are all 0ppm well, nitrite is about 0.25. I thought that you could do a cycle without fish, but iv come across this web site thats says "It is important to note that the cycling process does not begin until fish are added." its about the 3rd paragraph down http://www.bestfish.com/breakin.html is this true, do i need to add fish to the tank ( btw its a 45 gallon tank).

Thanks in advance for your comment.
 
No you do not need to add fish to cycle a tank. Here is an article about how to do it. Ignore the SW part works for fresh as well. You probably didn't add enough food to produce a noticable amount of ammonia. You can buy pure ammonia at a hardware store. Ace hardware carries it, be sure it has no detergents or any other additives. You could also add more food to the tank or a dead shrimp. Just a warning the shrimp gets kind of ugly and smells.

Welcome to AA!!!
 
Hi and welcome to AA imrandome1

I've seen that article and it could be updated to say it doesn't begin without an ammonia source. Fishless cycling is a humane way to get the cycle going without subjecting fish to the myriad of toxins that only weaken them.

As Rich mentioned, pure ammonia is an excellent method. I tried the shrimp method and it really is unpleasing to the eye, especially if the tank is the highlight of your room.

Good luck and don't hesitate to come back with any other questions.
 
Hi,

Thank you for your comment i did not now that you needed an ammonia source ( thank you lfs for telling me grrr lol) il try and get some this weekend, do you think that the cycle may not have started yet, or all the bacteria i added has gone to waist?

Thank you for your kindness, rich, and Jchillin, i do hope im not waisting your time with my questions.

( Btw im in the United Kingdom, can you actually get the ammonia sources, i havent sen it before, or am i justing being stupid?)
 
Welcome to AA! Never feel like asking questions is a bad thing or you are imposing. Unfortuantely lfs's don't share a lot of info, quite often they don't even know it. That's what AA is all about. Sharing information and helping others.

Try a hardware store or a local department store in the cleaing section. Make sure it is pure ammonia with no cleaning agents added.
 
On the ammonia - you're best bet is Ace Hardware for a "pure" ammonia. If you find "clear" ammonia anywhere else give it a good hard shake - if you see "foam" (ie: alot of bubbles that don't go away immediately) then pass it up - it may have additives in it which could "poison" the tank.

By the way - I started with ammonia and switched to the (grocery store) shrimp thing. It eliminated the need for daily dosing of ammonia and yes, it was sort of gross to watch that shrimp decay and the water did smell pretty bad, but its not that often that you actually stick your nose close enough to the tank to really smell it LOL

Just prepare yourself to have an empty tank for 4 - 6 weeks ... its the most difficult part of the process. Personally I gave up and ended up adding Bio-Spira, but I got lucky and got a good batch - sometimes its fails to work, so its a semi-gamble on that one.

Good luck and keep us posted .... and if you need to vent about the fishless cycle I'm all ears and will sympathize 10000%
 
joannde, imrandome1 is in the UK, they may not have an Ace's there. LOL we don't even have one where I am in Canada.
 
hi all, were I live in the UK, there is no Ace's im not sure there is any in uk. thought i might mention it.
 
My bad for not looking at the location ! Sorry about that. Now we need to get Ace to do a global expansion ! LOL
 
lol, that would be good, I'v looked in shops as B&Q ect and i cant find any ammonia, all the places i tried said you cant get any, or ammon...what? I really would like to avid using shrimp, because the tank is at the end of my bed and smelling tanks in your room, cant be nice. Thanks for the help, il keep you posted if i find any and if i cant i might be back, sorry LOL.

ps i have got another tank thats been running for about 6 months, BUT iv had alot of problems with it, with fin rot, and at the moment iv got ick in it, sadly i cycled this with tetra's 20 of them, and only 2 made it :-( it was horrible, hence why i wont to do a fishless cycle.
 
There is a third option. You can add fish food to the tank. As it rots it will produce ammonia and start the cycle. I wouldn't move any media from your other tank, you don't want to start with a diseased tank.
 
yeah i think il go with the safe option of adding a food, sorry here i am asking another question, what would be the best food, tetra mini crisps or bloodworm? Thank you for your helpful advice. :).

This place is bursting full of great advice and experience, im so glad i found it :):):)
 
I would just throw in a teaspoon full of the crisps and start checking for ammonia. You will probably see some in 3 - 4 days.
 
WOW great, thanks im planning on getting fish in about 2-3 weeks, so the cycle should be done by then?
 
When I did mine, I put in a fair amount of food to ensure that there was plenty of ammonia. I made the mistake the first time of assuming that there would be enough ammonia produced by the amount of 'rubbish' Id left in the sand from another tank.

Stick it out - be patient and then when your tank is up and running you'll know you did it the right way :)
 
4-6 weeks, sooooo long but il wait, i guess. fish cycle is a lot faster but mean, so i wont tempting though! lol can you add to much food to the tank and crash the cycle?
 
No, if your ammonia goes crazily high, all you would have to do is a water change, so don't worry about adding to much. Within reason of course.
 
I'm in the UK too. I haven't tried a fishless cycle before but just a thought - have you tried your local garden centres for ammonia? A lot of garden centres have tropical fish and pond sections in them (my lfs is in a garden centre) and they might be a bit less clueless than you're average B&Q employee :wink:
 
Yay someone else in the UK, I hope you stick around, so we can help each other out when it comes to products in the UK, J-D, :)

Thanks for all your help people, iv added some more food to the tank and il look out for some ammonia, thanks for the tips about ammonia "joannde", il keep you posted :)
 
Back
Top Bottom