Fishless cycle complete!!!

[critter905]

Just a note to let yall know that my fishless cycle is finally finished

I cycled with 3 large shrimp bought from the grocery store. It took 5 weeks and I basically just thru the shrimp in and let nature due the rest.
No frantic water changes to help keep fish alive during the cycling period or anything, it was actually quite nice.

Easiest cycle process I've ever been thru!!!

 

[Jchillin]

Congratulations Critter!!!

Now it's time to get fish! Have you decided what your stock plans are?

 

[critter905]

My fish stocking plans are as follows: 15 cardinal or rummynose tetras
6 cories
6-8 Discus
What do you think?

 

[Jchillin]

The tetras and cories sound excellent. I can't agree with the discus (never had them) but I have heard that they can get rather large or need more room for manuvering. Hopefully a discus keeper will make a suggestion.

Good luck!

 

[JohnPaul]

Corys are so much fun, get all 6 from the same species and I am sure you will enjoy them. And if you like them as much as I do, you might even consider down the road getting another 6-pack of a different species--I am sure you could fit them in a 75 gal easily.

From what I have read cardinal tetras like soft, acidic water. I'm less familiar with rummynose, though I hear they are among the best schooling fish out there.

Discus are a major, major investment (both time-wise and money-wise), not at all for the beginner. (Not that I'm saying *you* are a beginner, but in case anyone else out there is reading this it is worth pointing out.) There is a resident discus expert on these boards (BrianNY) who can tell you all you need to know about them. But if I am not mistaken, he does 40% pwc *daily* on his discus tanks and basically says if you aren't willing to put that level of maintenance into them, don't expect a lot of success with discus.

 

[critter905]

Actaully I have talked with Brian several times here on the board. He is VERY informative with the Discus.
I do realize of the dedication it takes to keep these fish thriving and am constantly researching and asking questions. Trust me I am not just jumping into Discus, I def. know what I am getting into and what is involved.

 

[youronlysin]

You used the shrimp cycle process for a freshwater aquarium? Thats very interesting. I wondered if that would work or not, as I havent heard of anyone trying it. Its a well known method for the saltwater crowd, but there is generally something already in a saltwater tank (liverock) that consumes the shrimp and starts the process. Well sounds good and good luck to ya.

 

[Ginafish]

Alright, I'm going to piggy-back onto this thread, because my fishless cycling is ALMOST done. LOL It's been a LONG road but I see the end! LOL My ammonia is going down to zero everyday after adding ammonia to the tank, and my nitrites have FINALLY dropped. They are between zero and 0.25ppm. It's been....about 6 weeks maybe?? Maybe I can get fish this weekend! I'm going to start with zebra danios to be safe....I'm thinking 6 for my 45 gallon? 8)

 

[TomK2]

I was wondering what happened to you! Glad to hear its time to add fish. 6 Danios is a rather small bioload in a 45 gal after going through a fishless cycle. The whole point of your efforts was to get a bio-filter revved up for fish. I would think you could go right to 40 to 50 percent of your planned fish. After all, that was the whole point of the ammonia, to simulate a larger bioload than you could have if you were trying to cycle with fish.

Any experienced fishless cycle members have comments?

 

[youronlysin]

I would have to say the point of using the ammonia is to start the cycle process without the need for using a live fish. This just keeps live fish from having to endure the cycle process, which has been known to kill them.

First off, I commend you all for cycling your tanks without fish in the first place. We know the cycle process already I assume. The bacteria that perform the nitrification process do this based on the amount of ammonia available for them to consume.

If our fish produce more ammonia than our biofilter can consume, it will have to grow in size to overcome this. This takes time, which is why we see spikes in ammonia and nitrite/nitrate levels or, "mini cycles". Mini cycles generally dont take as long to complete as the initial cycle.

If our fish produce less ammonia than our established bio-filter needs, it merely "rests", or changes its state and stores energy untill the source of ammonia rises again. This takes much less time to complete, as we dont have to wait for the size of our colony to grow, only resume production.

Adding your fish in small numbers is a good idea for a cycled tank. You cant add too few fish...as you add them, the bacterial colonies will resume the nitrification process. If you add too many, you will endure a mini cycle as the bacterial colony has to grow in size.

 

[Ginafish]

Hey Tom! Sorry I dropped off the planet for a couple of weeks. I've been really busy lately. Tankgirl has been PM'ing with me to help me along. If I didn't see you in here today, I was going to PM you too. Yeah, I stuck it out and I feel good about it.
Thanks for the backup advice youronlysin. I was wondering what would happen if I had a smaller bioload than what I was artificially adding to the tank. Good to know that they'll just chill out until I get more fish. If I only add 6 danios, and all goes well after a week, I'll add more.
The only issue I'm fighting right now is the pH is dropping again like it did a few weeks ago (and seemed to stall the cycle). I've been adding baking soda to compensate until the cycle is done. Once I do a 50% PWC, I'm sure it will balance out b/c the tap water has a high pH, plus the pH Lock powder I have seems to work pretty well in established tanks.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted as I go.

 

[Ginafish]

Got some fish today! I feel like drinking champagne! LOL
My nitrites finally went down to zero, along with the ammonia. I did a 50% PWC this morning, and then this afternoon I went and got some danios. I decided to get 10 instead of 6 b/c they're on the small side. I didn't think it would be a big bioload considering I've been spiking the ammonia on my own.
The only issue I came across was that some mysterious nitrites showed up when I tested the water for the hell of it. They went from zero to 0.50ppm after the PWC. I tested the tap water and there's none in there.
Anyone have any ideas as to where they came from??
Needless to say I had to add the fish since I already had them. They seem fine though and hopefully the nitrites are just being weird and will settle down overnight. I would hate to come this far and have something weird happen.

 

[TomK2]

It will be ok. I bet the Danio bioload is less than the ammonia you have been adding. Congrats on the fish!

 

[Ginafish]

LOL thanks. I just don't want to stress the fish out with this mysterious nitrite increase. I know it's not a horrible spike, but I'll feel bad if they're stressed. They seem happy though.
I'm not going to add anything for a couple of weeks per Tankgirl's sage advice!

 

[Ginafish]

Things are doing okay so far. The only bad thing that happened was that one of my zebra danios got sucked up the filter overnight! Nemo didn't make it! LOL I'm so mad. So I cut back the suction a little bit and have been leaving a light on at night just to make sure it doesn't happen again. Poor guy, he probably didn't see it coming in the dark! But the others seem very happy. Once they grow a bit, I'm sure it won't be an issue.
Nitrites still at 0.50ppm, but everything else is fine.