Fishless Cycling For Dummies

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I have a question regarding the "limit the number of fish you add" part. I know there's little reason to add everything at once, but I do woner how good it is to add members of the same species little by little. If I wanted to add, say, a school of twelve harlequin rasboras to the tank, I'm guessing they shouldn't be added in one by one, as they don't like being by themselves... but is it OK to add all twelve at once? If I were to put six in, and then put six more in later, would the older group accept the newer group? Is six at a time even too much, anyway? What would be the best way of adding fish that need to keep in large groups?
 
If it was a newly cycled tank I would say add 6 at a time and monitor ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Then add the other six.

I'm sure if it were a large, well established tank then you could probably get away with adding all 12 at once with proper water changes.

As far as the groups schooling... I had 5 neons in my 10g for a year or so... when I got my 30g I added 5 more and they all schooled together just fine.
 
RJRofFL thanks for the article, I was going to start up a new thread asking how to cycle an aquarium. I am just throwing this out there but i have heard that you can shorten the cycle time by using some gravel from an existing cycled aquarium. As long as there are no parasites or diseases that come along with the gravel is this an acceptable thing to do, or is this unwise? and I have no idea why my text is so huge.
 
wow, thats some serious font... anyways, to answer your question, using gravel, filter media, decor, pretty much anything from an existing tank (except water) is a good way to speed up the cycle. I always keep an extra filter on every tank in case i decide to set up another tank, or so i can instantly have a cycled qt. Filter cartridges that have been running on a tank for a few weeks are a really good way, especially if theyre the same ones you need for your filter.
 
Is there an average that the nitrites peak at? ie. usually peaks at 2ppm then drops? My tank has been sitting at about 1ppm nitrites for 3 days.

Also, how fast does ammonia usually drop once the nitrites show up? Mine seems to be dropping VERY slowly (if at all).
 
There are alot of variables sberk... the temperature of the tank will determine how fast, or slow, the tank will cycle. Also depends on how much ammonia you dose. I've never actually done a fishless cycle exactly, i keep an extra filter running on all of my tanks so that if i get a new one, all i gotta do is drop it in and the tank is cycled. I did recently cycle a tank by seeding it from another one (long story) and the nitrite took about a week and a half to spike then another week or week and a half before it went to 0... after 4 days of dosing 4ppm ammonia in the morning and it being at 0 by the time i got home from work, i knew it was cycled :)
 
Thanks mfdrookie516. I just wasn't sure if there was an average ppm that nitrites would spike at or if it's different with every tank.
 
I added two fish to my uncycled 10 gal two weeks ago and just lost the second one. should I start adding pure ammonia to finish the cycle?? please help!
 
mommytron said:
I added two fish to my uncycled 10 gal two weeks ago and just lost the second one. should I start adding pure ammonia to finish the cycle?? please help!
Click to expand...
I agree with HN1, if you have fish in there... I understood it that you lost both fish, in which case, yes, you will need to add ammonia.
 
Reading it again, I think I read wrong. With no fish, you will need an ammonia source. Food, dead shrimp, pure ammonia, whatever. MFD called it.
 
thanks mfd, and for the correction hn1. I'm definitely not THAT clueless (or evil)! so I'm assuming I just drop in ammonia until it reaches 4ppm then go from there? the nitrites haven't shown up yet and the ammonia is around 2 ppm so I'm guessing it will almost be like starting over? maybe take a little less time than a full cycle?
 
It wont start over if you've had ammonia present since the fish died. Just get it up to around 4ppm and continue to monitor it. If you havent already, read the link in my signature for some tips on fishless cycling.
 
I wanted to start our 75 gallon "fishless"; but I allowed the owner of our neighborhood fish store to convince me otherwise. I lost 5 out of 11 fish (zebra danios, and one porkchop rasbora). They had a home-concocted water treatment formula which he assured me would "cycle the tank in a few days", which, of course, it did not. After the 5th fish death (the first 4 were zebras, the 5th fish a rasbora), and the ammonia level dropping to 0 but the nitrite level stuck on a very high 1.6 for nearly two weeks, I purchased an 8.45 ml bottle of Tetra SafeStart (formerly "BIO-Spira"). Since then, I have had no fish deaths and after the third day, the nitrite level has remained at 0 for 2 weeks now.

I would never do a start-up using fish, again; if someone is going to use fish to cycle, I would advise them to start with 3 (or even less) danios, and to be extremely patient. It goes without saying that having a very good testing kit and using it often is essential.

And, unfortunately, the most sobering advice I can give you is this: be prepared to defend your knowledge and your philosophy to your local tropical fish salesperson, as that person might have a contradictory philosophy or agenda which might be contrary to your own. My "guy" knew I wanted to perform a "fishless" start-up cycle, but I allowed his expertise to sway my decision, which I now regret. But hopefully, someone will learn from my mistake(s).
 
someone needs to help convince me that this actually works. i did everything that this article told me. i have two air pumps going, temp is around 84 F, ammonia was dosed to 4ppm and i have been keeping a steady eye on ammonia and nitrite. THAT WAS 4 WEEKS AGO. NOTHING has happened. ammonia still read 4ppm and nitrites are a BIG FAT ZERO. i keep the light off. about 3 days ago i added a seeded filter cartridge. still nothing. someone please convince me not to just bag it and add some fish!!!

EDIT: just re-read over the STUPID ammonia bottle and it says "regular scent" .... GREAT. :mad: :bawl:
i'm breaking down the tank, cleaning everything, and starting over. oh well, now i can do a planted tank!!!
 
Last edited:
Twinsfan said:
I wanted to start our 75 gallon "fishless"; but I allowed the owner of our neighborhood fish store to convince me otherwise. I lost 5 out of 11 fish (zebra danios, and one porkchop rasbora). They had a home-concocted water treatment formula which he assured me would "cycle the tank in a few days", which, of course, it did not. After the 5th fish death (the first 4 were zebras, the 5th fish a rasbora), and the ammonia level dropping to 0 but the nitrite level stuck on a very high 1.6 for nearly two weeks, I purchased an 8.45 ml bottle of Tetra SafeStart (formerly "BIO-Spira"). Since then, I have had no fish deaths and after the third day, the nitrite level has remained at 0 for 2 weeks now.

I would never do a start-up using fish, again; if someone is going to use fish to cycle, I would advise them to start with 3 (or even less) danios, and to be extremely patient. It goes without saying that having a very good testing kit and using it often is essential.

And, unfortunately, the most sobering advice I can give you is this: be prepared to defend your knowledge and your philosophy to your local tropical fish salesperson, as that person might have a contradictory philosophy or agenda which might be contrary to your own. My "guy" knew I wanted to perform a "fishless" start-up cycle, but I allowed his expertise to sway my decision, which I now regret. But hopefully, someone will learn from my mistake(s).
Click to expand...


Those dang LFS are always trying to hustle me as well! There is only one place I have gone to out of 3 or 4 that actually didn't try and talk me into buying fish right then and there. Did you add all of those fish at once? You probably got WAY too much bioload and caused ammonia poisoning. Possibly could have been avoided from doing frequent PWC's. I want to get fish really bad but I don't want them die. i will literally cry! lol :taped:
 
P.S what was that Tetra SafeStart supposed to be? A product to cycle the tank? I have heard of those but I didn't think any actually worked; can you tell me a little more about it? *curious now*
 
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