The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling

[eco23]

Sweeet! I guess we do agree, since I'm on my second set of ammo chems. Now if I can keep from braking test tubes, I might have the original 4 back soon lol.

I'd be happy if they could come up with a test tube that didn't spray yellow and and blue all over the wall when you shake it, lol. I actually called API today to suggest they include the nitrAte shaking instructions on the bottle. I'll call back and ask them to make plastic tubes for you, haha.

 

[eco23]

its not that god big bro lol yep had to be CC i think no other way really

hows your fishes anyway mate

Everyone's fantastic except my German Blue Ram is now in the rose garden :-(. He wasn't sick, he was just poor quality stock and they die off easily. I ordered a Bolivian Ram from severum mama today, hopefully it will cheer my girl up. She really loved "Remy" the Blue Ram...hence the rose garden burial ceremony, lol.

 

[cichlidpaul]

Everyone's fantastic except my German Blue Ram is now in the rose garden :-(. He wasn't sick, he was just poor quality stock and they die off easily. I ordered a Bolivian Ram from severum mama today, hopefully it will cheer my girl up. She really loved "Remy" the Blue Ram...hence the rose garden burial ceremony, lol.

arrrrr blesss you my man i have a english word for you bro


lashed

you tell me what it means
lol

 

[eco23]

arrrrr blesss you my man i have a english word for you bro


lashed

you tell me what it means
lol

After a quick google search, it appears "lashed" is what we'll be getting if your stupid tank ever cycles, haha.

 

[eco23]

arrrrr blesss you my man i have a english word for you bro

lashed

you tell me what it means
lol

Unless you're referring to what we Americans call "whipped", in which case that would be when a man's girl tells him that he's going to hold a burial service for a fish...and he complies, lol.

 

[cichlidpaul]

no bro you got it right the first time lol

 

[Cloudrider]

Sounds good. Try to see if they sell mesh bags. It's much easier to control the CC that way.

Yep they had 2 sizes mesh bags. Got the 3 x 8 one. Smallest one. lol. Now to rinse the cc and put in one of the filters. Keeping fingers crossed or else Ill start drinking with the rest of you.

Ronnie

 

[eco23]

Yep they had 2 sizes mesh bags. Got the 3 x 8 one. Smallest one. lol. Now to rinse the cc and put in one of the filters. Keeping fingers crossed or else Ill start drinking with the rest of you.

Ronnie

Good deal. You can rinse it for 14 hours straight, but it's still gonna cloud up for a while...just be prepared

 

[Irish.OG87]

Got my canister set up last saturday, hoping the canister will help for the NO2 to decrease a wee bit. its so overkill in my tank with 2 hob filters n the canister, not a speck a dirt in me tank its great...now just need some fish to enjoy it as much as i do lookin at it lol

 

[shammond15731]

Sorry Eco I am on my phone so I can't copy and paste my screw up from the other thread, but basicly here it is we filled the tank and dosed to 4ppm last Saturday the ammonia dropped to 1ppm by Monday I think so I dosed it back to 4ppm on Thursday dosed it again up to 4 then late Saturday night it was back to 1ppm so I dosed it to 4 once more now today it was at 0.5ppm and I keep checking the nitrites but not even a trace. Should they be showing up by now or am I being impatient? I haven't bothered with checking nitrates since there are nitrates in our tap so that would pretty much be a false reading more or less.

 

[eco23]

Got my canister set up last saturday, hoping the canister will help for the NO2 to decrease a wee bit. its so overkill in my tank with 2 hob filters n the canister, not a speck a dirt in me tank its great...now just need some fish to enjoy it as much as i do lookin at it lol

You must have the cleanest water in the country, lol. The extra filters won't help it cycle faster though, you need the bacteria for that.

I'd say you need to take every single piece of filter media out of one of the HOB filter and stuff it in with the ceramic media in the canister. Let the HOB run empty for a day or so before you unplug it. That's what i did when I switched to my 405. I absolutely jam packed the ceramic media containers with the filter media from my HOB. My bio-filter didn't blink an eye. Still might be good to run the HOB run for a day or two before removing it though.

 

[eco23]

Sorry Eco I am on my phone so I can't copy and paste my screw up from the other thread, but basicly here it is we filled the tank and dosed to 4ppm last Saturday the ammonia dropped to 1ppm by Monday I think so I dosed it back to 4ppm on Thursday dosed it again up to 4 then late Saturday night it was back to 1ppm so I dosed it to 4 once more now today it was at 0.5ppm and I keep checking the nitrites but not even a trace. Should they be showing up by now or am I being impatient? I haven't bothered with checking nitrates since there are nitrates in our tap so that would pretty much be a false reading more or less.

Hey shammond, sorry to send you back over here. First question would be which test kit you're using? I would think that the ammonia dropping so quickly should be producing some level of no2 by now. Basically (to be blunt) the first type of bacteria eats the ammonia and poops out nitrItes. If you're using a good kit like API and still see no no2, maybe the bacteria is just constipated, lol. I'd just leave it be for a few days and you should see it shoot up pretty quickly and dramatically. No need for concern at this point

 

[Irish.OG87]

Sorry Eco I am on my phone so I can't copy and paste my screw up from the other thread, but basicly here it is we filled the tank and dosed to 4ppm last Saturday the ammonia dropped to 1ppm by Monday I think so I dosed it back to 4ppm on Thursday dosed it again up to 4 then late Saturday night it was back to 1ppm so I dosed it to 4 once more now today it was at 0.5ppm and I keep checking the nitrites but not even a trace. Should they be showing up by now or am I being impatient? I haven't bothered with checking nitrates since there are nitrates in our tap so that would pretty much be a false reading more or less.

Just keep doing what ur doing bro...NO2 will appear anytime now, just be patient lol ur on the right road. also keep track of ur pH too, just for safe measure, if it starts to drop dramitically it cud be a problem.

 

[Irish.OG87]

You must have the cleanest water in the country, lol. The extra filters won't help it cycle faster though, you need the bacteria for that.

I'd say you need to take every single piece of filter media out of one of the HOB filter and stuff it in with the ceramic media in the canister. Let the HOB run empty for a day or so before you unplug it. That's what i did when I switched to my 405. I absolutely jam packed the ceramic media containers with the filter media from my HOB. My bio-filter didn't blink an eye. Still might be good to run the HOB run for a day or two before removing it though.

em none of my filter media will fit in the canister...its full of the biosubstrat stuff all 3 baskets.

 

[eco23]

em none of my filter media will fit in the canister...its full of the biosubstrat stuff all 3 baskets.

You can't squeeze any of the spongy filter material in there? I jammed mine in to the point the canister didn't want to close. It's pretty vital to get that thing seeded if you don't want to run 3 filters forever.

 

[shammond15731]

Hey shammond, sorry to send you back over here. First question would be which test kit you're using? I would think that the ammonia dropping so quickly should be producing some level of no2 by now. Basically (to be blunt) the first type of bacteria eats the ammonia and poops out nitrItes. If you're using a good kit like API and still see no no2, maybe the bacteria is just constipated, lol. I'd just leave it be for a few days and you should see it shoot up pretty quickly and dramatically. No need for concern at this point

No worries of sending me back here, I thought this is where I was at lol I am really getting irritated with this darn phone browser, I will be soooo glad when the app is fixed!!! Anyway I am useing the API freshwater master test kit, and the darn nitrites couldn't be a more perfect match to the blue if they wanted to be. Oh and since I can't seem to get my signature to work right, u r welcome to call me Stacy.

 

[Irish.OG87]

You can't squeeze any of the spongy filter material in there? I jammed mine in to the point the canister didn't want to close. It's pretty vital to get that thing seeded if you don't want to run 3 filters forever.

tbh i dont mind it right now, its not like i got fish or anything to where it will have them all over the place due to the current hahahaha

 

[eco23]

No worries of sending me back here, I thought this is where I was at lol I am really getting irritated with this darn phone browser, I will be soooo glad when the app is fixed!!! Anyway I am useing the API freshwater master test kit, and the darn nitrites couldn't be a more perfect match to the blue if they wanted to be. Oh and since I can't seem to get my signature to work right, u r welcome to call me Stacy.

My app is horrible too, it crashes 20 times a day. Everything looks good, give it a couple days and keep us posted. Thanks Stacy!

 

[shammond15731]

Just keep doing what ur doing bro...NO2 will appear anytime now, just be patient lol ur on the right road. also keep track of ur pH too, just for safe measure, if it starts to drop dramitically it cud be a problem.

Yeah they aren't dropping to dramatically todays level was the quickest drop since Saturday night but that was 2 days and a drop of 3.5ppm. Oh and I am sure u can't tell from my name lol but I am a female lol my name is Stacy.

 

[eco23]

tbh i dont mind it right now, its not like i got fish or anything to where it will have them all over the place due to the current hahahaha

Yeah, you'd have some dizzy fish, haha. I just don't want you flipping out if you have a mini cycle down the road because you remove one of the filters later. How many do you plan on having on there permanently? If you're keeping one of the HOB's, throw the media from the one you're removing into it. I'd rather you get the filter seeded now so you don't need to worry about mini-cycles once you have fish.