Easy Cycle

[medic747]

Ok so I have heard alot about cycling tanks and I'm interested what's the easiest cycling process for saltwater and fresh. Freshwater im tossed and a little confused I know how to do the raw shrimp anf just let it go, but with pure ammonia im a little confused on how long to keep putting ammonia in the tank and what parameters should I keep the ammonia and nitrites.

And as far as saltwater goes no idea. Do you cycle with or without live rock just kinda need any info on the process thanks

 

[tyspot1000]

In fresh water, the best choices for fishless cycling is with A raw shrimp in a media bag, Feeding the tank with fish food, or with Pure ammonia.

With saltwater, You have to have live rock to cycle. The current going through the LR acts like a biological filter, collecting the bacteria. Im not sure if you feed the tank or not though.

 

[neilanh]

The process for both is identical. The raw shrimp method is probably the easiest, becuase you put the shrimp in and just let it go.

For using pure ammonia, you want to dose the tank and measure using your test kit. The initial dose you want is around 3-5ppm on your ammonia test kit. After some time, the bacteria will start to build up and feed on the ammonia, and therefore decrease the ammonia in the tank. When this happens, you dose a little more to keep it up around 3-5ppm. When you dose ammonia, and 24 hours later your ammonia and nitrIte readings are 0ppm, then you're all done!

Just for a clarification, for saltwater it's not necessary to have the live rock to cycle with. You can have a SW tank with no live rock in it, and the process is the same. If, however, you plan to have rock in the tank, then it's best to have it in there while you do the cycle.

There's an article, linked in my signature below, called Fishless Cycling, that explains all of this better than I just did.

 

[warthog76za]

This is how the shrimp looked when I started out with my cycle.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I've always seeded my aquariums with substrate in a cup, filter media and water from another tank which ordinarily I would throw away at water change time. For example I ordinarily do 30% water changes, when I started my 75 gallon I simply took some of the substrate from the 55 and put it in a cup (the 75 has a different substrate) and put that in the tank. I filled the tank with 30% of the water from the 55 and then the rest was fresh water. The HOB filter I simply put half the media from one of the 55 gallon filters into one of the HOB filters I had on the new 75. I then filled up both the 75 and 55 with fresh, so basically with everything in place it was just like both tanks had had a big water change. I leave the substrate in the tank about a week before returning it to it's original tank.

I would see if you can find a good local fish store who would let you borrow a bucket full of water, some old filter media and some substrate - if you don't have your own tank to seed from. You might want to observe fish for any signs of infection if you use LFS for seeding though... You don't KNOW what their tanks have even if you regularly buy from there.