Hey you guys so far I have a saltwater reef, a freshwater tank, and now I am finally ready to move onto a pond... well more likley a "fish tub" I am planning on using a 40 gallon "tub" that they sell at those home improvement stores. Now it has been a while since i set up my last tank, and I need a quick refresh on cylcing tanks. I would perfer the method that does not use any tester fish. do i just need to drop some of those nitrifying bacteria things that they sell at petco in there? sorry I forgot haha.
starting a "fish tub"
- Thread starter fish guru
- Start date
You don't need to use a bacteria starter culture, as the denitrifying bacteria occur almost everywhere; put in some used filter media from your freshwater tank to get a good start. You just need to give them a place to live (filter) and some food (ammonia) to get a thriving population started.
For supplying ammonia, you can use straight ammonia (no additives), fish food, or you could probably put the yucky stuff from your FW tank to provide food for the bacteria. And believe it or not, I've heard that you can use pee for the ammonia. I've never tried it (probably never will!) but it most likely works.
You could use some filter media from other tanks as a "quick" cycle or add ammonia yourself. Solely using food takes a LONG time to even get measurable ammonia IME and peeing in it probably wouldnt be the most "effective" method 
Oh, and read the sticky in the FW newb section
Oh, and read the sticky in the FW newb section
You can just add filter media to the filter and/or some established substrate to 'seed' the tank with bacteria.
I can't really imagine someone taking a leak in their tank :rofl:
I can't really imagine someone taking a leak in their tank :rofl:
