How did you cycle your tank?

[trennamw]

Thought this might be useful ... There are so many approaches, and it's fairly random who is here to answer questions when someone asks.

Sharing what did not work might help as much as what did work.


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[trennamw]

On my 29 ...

As best I can remember

... this did not work ...

29 gallon fishless, dosed to 4ppm with ammonia, and a pinch of fish flakes. Tried several bottled bacteria from Petsmart (API and Seachem). Waited a month.

What did work was ...

Change the water to start over, dosed with plain dechlorinator
Seeded media (a 5 inch pad of blue floss)
Temp up to ~82, pH up to ~8.2
Water level down to encourage aeration
Mono potassium phosphate, instead of fish food (the person giving me seeded media measured out a tiny bit).
Ammonia dosed to 4ppm
One water change at the end.

I've also cycled several small tanks in a few days with seeded media, ammonia to 4ppm, no adjustments to pH, temp, or phosphate.


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[KristaButler]

I cycled a 10 gallon with fish. Not one fish died and I really didn't know what I was doing. I changed 3 gallons every 4 days until it was cycled. Then I upgraded to a 29 gallon and just did weekly water changes until it was cycled. The 10 gallon took about 2-3 months. The 29 gallon took only 2 weeks. I had moved all the rocks and filter over from the 10 gallon, so I guess my bacteria transferred over just fine.


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[PNWaquarist]

I did a fishless cycle with Dr. Tim's One & Only bacteria. Cycled the tank in 10 days at 82 F and pH 8.0. Pretty straightforward.

 

[Fresh2o]

Fish in cycle for my first tank. Not sure how long it took.
Fish-less cycle for my second. Used media from the first tank, temp 80-82 F, ammonia, took about 6 days.


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[trennamw]

Fish in cycle for my first tank. Not sure how long it took.
Fish-less cycle for my second. Used media from the first tank, temp 80-82 F, ammonia, took about 6 days.


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Do you mind giving more info about your fish in cycle? How high did you let the ammonia and nitrite get?


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[Andy Sager]

I did fish in for the first tank ( with a sponge filter) then seeded the next 10 tanks from the rest of the sponges. Have not lost any fish due to cycling. The key is to NOT OVERCROWD the tank, do routine water changes and add fish slowly.

 

[Patty1980]

I've only cycled 2 tanks so far. Fishless. Used a raw shrimp to start both times. Roughly 2-3 weeks till it completed. I'm thinking the highest my ammonia got was 5ppm.

 

[dragon14]

I did a fishless cycle in my 10g. Lasted about 20 days or so. I used ammonia from Family Dollar.

If anyone wants me to elaborate, I will!

 

[Fresh2o]

Do you mind giving more info about your fish in cycle? How high did you let the ammonia and nitrite get?


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I wish I had details but that was somewhere between 2007-2008. Over that time I have gone through a 3-4 filters and ran them in parallel for a few months to transfer the BB. Values were recorded in a spreadsheet but lost over time I do not recall the ammonia getting over 1-2 ppm and nitrite over 1. Even then I stocked lightly and did PWCs.


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[aqua_holic]

I've started more than 20 tanks by just moving media over from an existing tank and adding fish that same day. When I got back into the hobby I did a fish in cycle with feeder goldfish. That was the last time I actually "cycled" a tank.

 

[Eggheadfish]

I started with an established tank and from then on used it to seed my new tanks. I always run the new filter media for a few weeks and then stock slow when I start it up. As long as your new bioload isn't enormous I've had no problems with doing it this way. I tend to start the tanks with hardier fish too just as a precaution.

 

[trennamw]

I did a fishless cycle in my 10g. Lasted about 20 days or so. I used ammonia from Family Dollar.

If anyone wants me to elaborate, I will!

Please do!


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[dragon14]

Please do!


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What would you like me to elaborate on?

For starters, I found the awesome "Almost Complete Guide to Fishless Cycling" on this website, and basically followed that for our fishless cycle.

We experimented somewhat with the amount of ammonia, based also on what we found online, and about 1tsp of it made the water about 3-4ppm.

I can give better details while looking at my tank log at the same time; I don't have it with me at the moment. It took about 20 days though, which was so exciting!!!!

Then our male betta sadly passed away and we buried him, and then tested the cycle on the 10g to make sure it was still strong (took about 5-7 days) then we put our female betta and pygmy catfish in there. We got the female sort of accidentally when we went to return some unopened betta medicine and we liked her a lot when we saw her.... you know how it goes sometimes

 

[fish wrangler]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling/ I am following this along with asking lots of questions in my thread 'Fishless Cycle Questions'

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[gilpi]

Old school fish in cycle in every tank I ever had. Nothing fancy or special, just did lots of partial water changes, kept the feeding to a minimum and in around a month or less the filters cycled.

 

[fish wrangler]

It has been 5 days since I started fishless cycle, amd I am already turning 3 ppm ammonia to nitrites in under 24 hours. I just used ~1 pound of old gravel to start BB. I'm just waiting on nitrites to get to 0 in 24 before adding fish.

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[trennamw]

For those that did fishless, did you set a specific temperature or pH? Did you add phosphate?


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[fish wrangler]

Temperature for me is ~79, pH is 7.8 but I am not messing woth that, and I am not adding phosphate

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[apr28]

First tank 29G, I started fishless with ammonia then poured a bottle of Tetra Safestart 2 weeks in then bang!! 0-0-20 48 hours after.


My 5.5 Fluval, I seeded from the 29 but still took a long time due to PH issues that I never figured out but worked itself out.