Fishless Cycling Shortcut

L

Luca Brazzi

AC Members
Oct 12, 2002
299
0
0
Visit site
I know this may rub some of you the wrong way, however, Im the type of person who likes to deal with what works.

Want to speed up your fishless cycle? Here's how.

1) Add 5ppm Clear Ammonia to your tank.

* If you have some items/gravel from an established tank, add it as well to hurry up the process.

2) Wait for the 5ppm ammo to go to 0 ppm (For brand new media it could take as much as 3 weeks for the ammo to go to 0 the first time)

3) Do a Nitrate test. If you have high (100+ppm) Nitrates, then goto 4, otherwise goto 1

4) Stop adding Ammonia!

5) Wait 1 day

6) Do a 100% water change

7) Wait 1 day

8) Do a 100% water change

9) After a few hours, are your Nitrites at 0? If so goto 10, otherwise goto 8

10) Add fish

11) If you get any detectable Nitrites after adding the fish (which more than likely you wont), do a partial water change.

* Note: In step 10 add your hardiest fish first. For those of you adding predatory fish (Cichlids, etc). Throw in a few feeders for a day or two, then add your Oscar (to clean out the feeders :D).

Some of you may be saying... What about the Nitrites going to 0?

They will... very quickly!

Consider this... The amount of Nitrites produced on a daily basis are proportional to the amount of ammonia being generated by the fish and consumed by the ammo eating bacteria. If you reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank you will reduce the amount of Nitrites being produced in a day. This being the case, ask yourself this question: How much ammonia will the fish I plan to stock my tank with produce in 1 day? I guarantee, unless you are WAY,WAY overstocking the tank, your fish will not get anywhere NEAR generating 5ppm of ammo in a single day. I currently have 20+ small feeder fish (.5-3") in a completely filterless 15 gallon tank and 3 days after doing a water change the ammo reading was only .5 ppm (yes, I changed the water again for them at that point)! Anyway after your ammo goes to 0 more than likely you will have enough Nitrobacter (Nitrite eating bacteria) on your biofilter to support the bioload you plan to keep, but it may not yet be able to consume all of the Nitrite produced from 5ppm ammo being nitrified (hence the reason you have a high Nitrite reading), but it is more than likely enough to support your fish so... do a 100% water change and GO FOR IT! To help a little more with completing the cycle you can also add another couple of handfuls of gravel from an established tank at this point.

How does this work?

You see, by stopping the ammonia additions and doing the water changes you will in effect "starve" the 1st set of bacteria so they will begin to lower the amount of Nitrite they produce. This lowered Nitrite output will be low enough to able to be completely consumed by the Nitrobacter 2nd bacteria set. This will bring the whole system into balance. When you add your fish, they will begin producing ammonia, but at a MUCH lower rate than 5ppm/day. This much lower rate of ammonia production by your fish, will result in a much lower rate of Nitrite production which your Nitrobacter easily handle.

The moral of this story is... Why grow all that bacteria when your bioload wont support it anyway? If you are like me, and are adding a few small fish at time, you wont NEED a bacteria colony big enough to consume 5ppm ammo in a day.

Or you could just get some Bio-Spira from Marineland and cycle your tank in a day :D
 
Last edited:
I'm moving this into General FW. The newbie forum is for people who are trying to learn the process, the right way, and attempting to short cut the development of biological filtration isn't really effective.

If you are willing to expose your fish to nitrites, which are more toxic than ammonia, your call. Advising others to do so, in a Newbie forum, is not okay.
 
Hi Luca,

If I understand you correctly, I don't think you are doing anything drastically different - except skipping the nitrIte tests or adding more ammonia to top up to 5ppm. Not sure if this would speed things up though. IMO adding ammonia keeps the nitrite production humming.

As well, what I like about doing a fishless the 'traditional' way is the control I have through the whole process. I always know what my readings are and can keep close tabs on how the cycle is proceeding and adjust as necessary.

Have you done this on your tanks?

Eager
 
I think you are missing the point Eager. If after your ammo goes to 0, you have lots of Nitrates, you are almost done, just change the water a couple of times (over or 2 or 3 days) without adding more ammonia, and you are done... Add fish instead of continuing to add 5ppm ammonia while waiting for the Nitrite eater colony to grow large enough to consume the Nitrite produced by 5ppm ammo which your bioload wont generate anyway.

To answer your question as to if I did this... yes.

During my fishless cycle, I waited till my ammo went to 0 (at this point I did a Nitrate test and the Nitrates were 150ppm+), then I kept adding ammonia (I could have skipped this step). My Nitrites and Nitrates were through the roof. So I decided to cut to the chase. I did a couple 100% water changes and got both the Nitrites and Nitrates down to 0. Then I added fish, and within 2 days my Nitrites were 0 (it did raise to very low, barely detectable levels then went back to 0). Since I already had the ammo eater colony established (from adding the ammo), the ammonia level was fine.

And I added a bunch of fish...

The point is that the fish were generating WAY less than 5ppm ammo daily, so the daily production of Nitrite was also minimal, and was low enough to be handled by the Nitrobacter colony that was already present.

In short, if at the point your ammo drops to 0 you have lots of Nitrates the way I did, you already have both sets of bacteria, however, the second colony isnt quite large enough to handle the Nitrite produced by adding 5ppm ammo, but it is more than likely large enough to handle the Nitrite produced by Nitrifying the ammo your fish will produce.

Unless of course your are planning to add 4 full grown Oscars to a 40 gallon tank. :D

The alternative is to wait till youve got a Nitrobacter colony large enough to handle Jaws in a goldfish bowl (an additional 1.5 to 2 times the time it took to grow the ammo eaters), then throwing your 4 Neons in there.

Waste of Time.
 
Last edited:
Actually, you could never read any ammonia with fish in a fully stocked tank, on a fishless cycled one which has completed the ammonia phase of bacterial development. Fish release small amounts of ammonia constantly (as opposed to single daily doses during fishless cycling) so the titer in the tank is never detectable by hobby tests. However, a fully stocked tank which has not been fishless cycled can easily build up to 3-5ppm ammonia in a day or two. The nitrite from that level of ammonia production will be every bit as toxic as the ammonia would have been.

Very poor practice IMHO and IME. The tank used as an example had been in process quite some time, and obviously had developed significant nitrite oxidizing bacteria. It does not in any way follow that every tank past the ammonia peak is ready for fish.

Use this technique only at your own risk and with full awareness that fish kill may result.
 
It does not in any way follow that every tank past the ammonia peak is ready for fish.
Click to expand...

Interesting point RTR that's the reason to test for high Nitrates. Those without lots of Nitrates should go back to step 1.

The tank used as an example had been in process quite some time, and obviously had developed significant nitrite oxidizing bacteria
Click to expand...

The tank hadnt cycled to the point of completely eliminating the Nitrite from 5ppm Ammo either. Point being I didnt need to wait for the Nitrites from daily additions of 5ppm ammo to go to 0.

Those are the facts. Not my opinion.
 
Last edited:
From my tests on the 20+ fish Ive got in the filterless 15 gallon, they are generating about .2ppm ammo per day in a 15 gal. So It would seem reasonable that the per day concentrations would reduce in a linear fashion the larger the tank gets (.1ppm/day for a 30 gal, .05 ppm/day for 60 gallon, .025ppm/day for a 120 gal, etc.)

Now why would I need a bacteria colony capable of consuming 5ppm/day when all Im producing is less than .05ppm/day in my 75 gallon tank?

Answer is... I dont. All I need is a bacteria colony large enough to handle the .05ppm/day my fish will produce.

Now... you might ask... Why not just start off by adding .05ppm ammo instead of 5ppm and then wait till both go to 0? To that I say...

You are a gifted genius wise beyond your years!

However, the problem with your method is that the speed of development of the second set of bacteria (Nitrite eaters) is greatly increased by the overabundance of Nitrites due to the massive amounts of Nitrites generated by the ammo eaters consuming the 5ppm ammo.

Yep... first Voodoo Economics, then Fuzzy Math, now this! :D
 
Last edited:
Not wanting to start an argument, but the tank in question had been through many, many more manipulations than simple ammonia additions. Trying to replicate that process would be quite daunting. And in my opinion, trying to present it as a simple and reproduceable case is misleading.
 
Geez...

Its interesting to see how some folks just seem to get their undies all in a bunch when something a little different than what they are used to comes along!

No matter what the tank went through, the facts remain. I NEVER had enough Nitrobacter to consume the Nitrite generated by adding 5ppm ammo.

Never.

After a couple of massive water changes, I added fish, and my Nitrites went to 0. If I had continued adding 5ppm ammo, weeks later I'd STILL be waiting for the Nitrite to drop. Instead, Im thoroughly enjoying my less than .05ppm/day in a 75 gallon tank ammo generating Cichlids.
 
Hey Luca,

I totally comend your willingness to try and improve the process and thank you for it. I am at a loss for what to say here because I have no experience with your method and all we are talking about is theories. It may very well have worked for your tank, but I would need to see it work in a number of other people's tanks to feel comfortable trying it.

Eager
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom