When I cycled my tank, I actually did a fish cycle. I used a few guppies and did a lot of testing. Basically I just kept watching the levels until it was over. I find fish cycling is faster than the ammonia but I've seen people cycle faster with ammonia. I also use them cycling bottles you can buy. I honestly don't know if they work or not but I still use it as it causes no harm. If you do decide on a fish cycle, just get ready to test about 2-3 times per day.
Cycling my 45
- Thread starter JoeeStacks
- Start date
Fishless cycling is MUCH easier because you don't have all the water changes. In my experience, it progresses faster too because you control the ammonia level inputted into the system at a higher level than you get from just a few tiny fish establishing a small bioload.
It's also much more humane. Why make defenseless fish suffer through toxic conditions cycling like that unnecessarily when it only serves to slow the process down anyway?
It's also much more humane. Why make defenseless fish suffer through toxic conditions cycling like that unnecessarily when it only serves to slow the process down anyway?
I am going to do the fishless cycle but I can't get my hands on some ammonia. So I threw in some fish food. Is that okay too?
Fishfood works fine. Just use a little more of it each time than you'd use just feeding the fish. If you can't find ammonia, you could also use a little piece of shrimp in a stocking/knee-high the same way saltwater fishkeepers do. That works just as well with freshwater setups.
I have some fish food in the tank now and I just bought some pure ammonia from dollar tree. Should I add in the pure ammonia now or take out the food first? And how much ammonia? Thank you. @Jannika @Kashta
You can leave the food in, add ammonia until it measures about 4 ppm initially. Test ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates daily. keep adding ammonia to maintain approx 2 ppm and keep testing. You are looking for the nitrites to spike and ammonia to drop. Then maintaining your procedure, the nitrates will spike and nitrites will drop. At that point, you are looking for 2pp ammonia to be consumed to 0, nitrites to be 0 with high nitrates within a 24 hour period. Then a massive water change to lower nitrates and add fish.
Massive water change as in 50-75%? Thank you for the information. Very helpful! :bowing:
Ptrick125
Learning a lot everyday
Get some of those minnows that cost about 15¢ each at petsmart
Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Should I be giving small frequent water changes to my fish tank while it is cycling with ammonia?
