# The fishless cycle in my new tank



## Fish novice (Jun 28, 2013)

I plan to add the water to my new Fluval Roma 125 tomorrow and start the fishless cycle. I found the following video on YouTube and the guy recommends starting things off with a pinch of fish food. The MOST Important Aquarium Video to watch. ~Water Cycling~ - YouTube Is this good way to go about it ? I can also borrow the second filter from my daughter's tank which is an Interpets PF 2. Alternatively, I bought a bottle Kleenoff Household Ammonia, should I use that rather than fish food and if so, how much ammonia should I add ? This part of fishkeeping seems a bit scary to me but I'm guessing it becomes a formality in time and nothing to worry about ?

Geoff.


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## Picklelily (Jan 2, 2013)

As far as I am aware adding household ammonia to your tank won't help.

What you are trying to do is get bacteria to develop in your tank, that will feed on the ammonia and nitrites from decomposing food and your fishes waste.

In a new tank they would just be feeding off the pinch of decomposing food you have put in the tank.

To help your new tank along, you could put some water from your daughters tank into your new tank. Hopefully this water will have a few of the beneficial bacteria in it, to help get your new tank started. At least this is what I have done with my new tank. You can instead buy an aquarium starter culture.

I'm sure somebody with more knowledge will come along, but I hope that helps a bit. Great video link by the way.


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## Picklelily (Jan 2, 2013)

Found this for you on adding household ammonia

Using Household Ammonia for Humane Cycling of a Tank

and this

Fishkeeping - Household Ammonia information [Forums - General Information]
#18 Re: Household Ammonia information
EagleC Posted on: 2/6/2008 20:44
You test once per day and top up as required.

. 1ml of 9.5% ammonia in 100L of water is 1ppm (approximately!)

So, you test each day and if its below 2ppm you add 2ppm. It really is that simple. You continue this all the way through the cycle.

1 test per day until the tank is cycled is 25-30 tests, but the API mini-master kit gives you about 80 ammonia tests so you've still got enough left to finish off the year by which time you should be buying a replacement kit anyway


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## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

If you can use ammonia, use ammonia! Its far easier to get the correct dosage and growth rates of bacteria with ammonia than it is with fishfood. Kleenoff is the typical brand most people use for this purpose as well, so this will be ideal.

Before you begin, you will need to seed the new filter with bacteria, otherwise there will be nothing to feed. The best idea, as you say, it to borrow a filter from another tank (or just wash the filter pads out in your tank to get the bacteria free swimming). You're daughters tank would be great for this, but any established aquarium will do. In most cases, simply adding water or gravel from an established tank will not work, as there is actually very little bacteria free swimming. certainly not enough for a population to develop anyway. Filter gunk is really the only way to do it. You can also get "bacteria in a bottle" stuff from your local pet shop, but these have always been suspect for use.

Once the filter is seeded, then you can start with the fishless cycle. The little guide posted above this by Picklelily is pretty decent. Basically, you just need to maintain ammonia levels of between 2 and 4ppm in the aquarium every day until the cycle is completed. Test every day, and top up ammonia when required. the whole cycle should take about 3 to 4 weeks (but can be anywhere from 2-8 weeks). Just keep dosing and testing, and eventually, you will get nitrate levels rising, and the ammonia completely vanishing within 24 hours. That is when your tank is ready!

Hope this helps
Fishy


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

Household ammonia - so long as there are no other additives - is the best, fastest and debris-free method of fishless cycling. Think about it, if you use flake food, something has to break down the flakes first to produce the ammonia. Cycling is all about growing bacteria for the nitrogen cycle, not growing bacteria for decomposition. With ammonia you can accurately add the right amount to the tank, and keep a track of it being broken down. For a fishless cycle typically you add 4ppm ammonia to start it off, and 2ppm thereafter. You can use online calculators to tell you how much ammonia to add to your tank to get the right dosage.

So don't bother with the fish food, just use the ammonia and some seeding media (if you can get it) and after a couple of weeks or so you will be all set.


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

Forgot to add, the first fishless cycle can seem a little scary - but it'll all be ok and if you have any more questions about the process feel free to ask.

Using your daughter's spare filter media - or even just a squirt of dirty filter water from her tank - will greatly speed up the cycling time. Unless she is going to give you her spare filter for the long term, I wouldn't reccomend you running it along side your new filter, as the aim of the fishless cycle is to grow your own bacteria, and if you use her filter then those bacteria will eat up all the ammonia and you won't be able to grow your own - at least not for a long time! You will be seeing double zeros every day and have no real idea how your filter's bacterial growth is progressing.

So - work out how much ammonia to add to your tank, squeeze out some dirty filter water from your daughter's media onto your new filter media, and off you go. The API master test kit is the other tool you will need, as you will need to test your starting levels, and the levels of ammonia and nitrite each day until you finish (which is after 3 days of double zeros ie ammonia and nitrite being broken down in 24 hours).

Hope that helps.


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## Fish novice (Jun 28, 2013)

Holy thread revival, I have long since cycled my tank, I used the adding ammonia method together with borrowing the second filter from my daughter's tank which I replaced with a new filter. Both tanks are now well stocked with healthy, happy fish.


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

LOL. I keep forgetting to look at the dates of the original posts, and instead just see the date of the newest update. Twice that's happened this week alone, whoops. Oh well, at least you got your tank sorted (tbh there's so many posts along that lines I lose track of who asked what... that's my excuse...) and if anyone new to the forum sees these posts they might find some use for the recent posts. 

*hides in a corner with a red face*


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## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

Haha! Oh dear, someone necro'd an old post and i didnt realise XD Glad to hear things went well :3


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