"Cycling" with nothing

[Lady G]

Here, from the article I provided....

(2) Fishless Cycling

Just as it sounds, you can establish the cycling environment without any fish. This method does not pose any threat to fish, establishes a large bacteria colony allowing full stocking upon completion and gives you time to decide on what fish you want.

When establishing a tank with this method, you will use a source of ammonia to initiate the nitrogen cycle. After your tank is set up, add water and treat for chlorine/chloramines. Your filtering systems and heaters should be in place and operating to your satisfaction.

Add ammonia to bring the tank to a concentration of 5 ppm. The amount you add will vary with the size tank you have. Do not be in a rush. Add small amounts and test, repeating as necessary. If you get it too high, you can drain and refill.

Now the hurry up and wait part happens. Every two days, test your ammonia level in the tank. When the ammonia levels start dropping, add additional ammonia as required to keep the ammonia at 3-4 ppm, start daily testing and test for ammonia and nitrites. Nitrites should be developing as ammonia goes away. This first stage could take 1-3 weeks.

When you see the test results showing Nitrites, start maintaining your ammonia at the 2-3 ppm range. The nitrites increasing reflect you are in to the second stage. Continue daily testing for ammonia and maintain the tank in the 3 ppm range. You will see nitrites climb so high they will be off the scale for a reading. This will continue for one to two weeks and it will seem the nitrites are never going to go away.

There will be a day where you test and the nitrites have completely disappeared, thus, the bacteria that convert them to nitrates have established themselves. When you see this drop to zero on nitrites, dose ammonia in the tank to about 5 ppm, and wait 24 hours. If at the end of that period, ammonia and nitrites are zero, your cycle has been established. Test for nitrates, and do a 75-90% water change. Pull your water down to 20 ppm nitrates and add the fish! If you have to wait to get your fish, keep the cycle established by dosing more ammonia, but you may have to do another water change before adding your fish.

 

[Notophthalmus]

The bacteria are not present in your ammonia source or your tapwater- they have to come in from somewhere. You either get a few dormant bacteria of the appropriate species fortuitously drift in from outside, or you add them yourself. I prefer to add them myself- you get to the appropriate population density much faster with a starting population in the millions, rather than the ones.

I've started a tank or two with good old pond muck, but that's a bit scary for some people.

 

[Wateveryousay]

What are household substances i could use or something from outside?

 

[Notophthalmus]

For the ammonia source- You can get straight ammonia from various places, including many department/ general stores. You just want to be sure there are no soaps or perfumes in it. This is the very best thing to use, but any proteinaceous organic matter (fish food, cocktail shrimp, etc.) will also provide some ammonia and other nitrogen compounds as a by-product of bacterial decay.

For the bacteria- Any aquatic environment that receives animal waste or other decaying matter will have denitrifying bacteria in it; they will be concentrated in the substrate. A scoop of creek gravel, lake sand, pond mud, swamp muck, etc. will give you a good start; of course gravel (from an aquarium or an outdoor body of water) is the cleanest option; you can put it in pantyhose or a filter sock so it doesn't mix in with your chosen substrate.

 

[Lady G]

You obviously do it the way you want...but personally I wouldn't add just anything to my tank. If you are doing a fishless cycle and are not using established media...when you add the ammonia, as your ammonia goes down, then you will see Nitrites, you will continue to add ammonia...but as the Nitrites start to appear this will be the second step to your cycle...the Nitrites will rise VERY high..and will last for a couple weeks, when they start to go down your bacteria will be forming...when they are completely gone it is "bacteria" that turns them to nitrates....establishing your tank. There is more to it but that is the basics...the Ammonia will start the Nitrites, the Nitrites will form into nitrates and the bacteria to establish your tank will come from this process.

You do not need to add an outside source of bacteria.

 

[Notophthalmus]

Adding ammonia to water gets you- an aqueous solution of ammonia. That's the way it will stay without bacterial action.

Each step of the nitrogen cycle is carried out by bacteria- one group of bacteria converts ammonia to nitrites, and another group converts nitrites to nitrates. These guys can also work on other nitrogenous wastes, such as urea and uric acid. Ammonia does not spontaneously decay into nitrites- the 'cycling' process IS the process of establishing populations of denitrifying bacteria.

The reason you can start a cycle without adding bacteria is that there are always bacteria, of many species, drifting around in the air; eventually some of the appropriate species will enter your tank. It's much quicker to add some bacteria from an established population, though.

 

[Lady G]

Adding ammonia to water gets you- an aqueous solution of ammonia. That's the way it will stay without bacterial action.

Each step of the nitrogen cycle is carried out by bacteria- one group of bacteria converts ammonia to nitrites, and another group converts nitrites to nitrates. These guys can also work on other nitrogenous wastes, such as urea and uric acid. Ammonia does not spontaneously decay into nitrites- the 'cycling' process IS the process of establishing populations of denitrifying bacteria.

The reason you can start a cycle without adding bacteria is that there are always bacteria, of many species, drifting around in the air; eventually some of the appropriate species will enter your tank. It's much quicker to add some bacteria from an established population, though.

Exactly!!! The Cycle itself will form the bacteria

I completely agree it speeds the process up with established media...I do not however agree you have to add it, or that it is a good idea to add it from a scoop of creek gravel, lake sand or any other outside source..you have no idea what polutants may be there.

 

[Notophthalmus]

Bacteria are living organisms; they are not formed by chemical processes, they can only be produced by pre-existing bacteria.

Of course you should only take media from a clean source, but it is easy to get information on the pollutants in most water bodies, at least in the US; the EPA keeps such data. I would tend to trust natural water bodies over aquaria, where the high concentration of fish MAY (supposition here, I have no data on this) lead to high concentrations of pathogens, but that's just me.

 

[SchizotypalVamp]

Any pathogens in a healthy aquarium are ones which aquarium-bred fish have a high resistance to, generally. However, they would not have high resistance to ones from local ponds.

 

[Notophthalmus]

Perhaps, perhaps not. Your guppies may not be resistant to the pathogens in an oscar tank, for example.