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How to do a Fishy Cycle….safely. A step by step guide.

This article confirms my experience. i found it to be very helpful. originally found here: www.tetra-fish.com 

There are other methods of cycling, including fish-less cycling, plant cycling, and the use of seed material for cycling. There are pro’s and con’s that must be weighted carefully when trying to decide what method of cycling is right for you. There is an abundance of information on the web regarding ways of cycling. Due your research and decide what method is best for you.

Not all fishy cycles are crated equal…there is a right way and a wrong way. The right way results in a a cycled tank and live healthy fish. The wrong way may result in a cycled tank with live fish, if you are lucky. But the lives of said fish will be dramatically shortened due to ammonia and nitrate poisoning. The following is a step-by-step guide for doing a fishy cycle. If you follow these step, you will successfully cycle your tank without causing harm to your fish.

PRO’S of the Fishy Cycle
The benefit of a fishy cycle….fish. In the tank, to look at, immediately, which is sort of the reason we keep tanks.
CON’S of the Fishy Cycle
Time. Your time. A lot of it. A correctly done fishy cycle requires twice daily tank care. You must decide up front if you are willing to put in the time required. If not, this method isn’t for you.

Step-By-Step Guide
1. Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start

**** If the terms such as bioload, nitrogen cycle, or ammonia/nitrite/nitrate
are unfamiliar to you, stop right here! Please, go to each of the following links and read each article, twice.
Your first tank–
http://www.firsttankguide.net/

Water changes–
http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/a…article52.html

Cycling, more than you ever wanted to know-
http://www.fishaholics.org/cyberu/cycle/player.html

Then come back here and finish reading.****

2. Clean the tank, yes even new ones. Place your gravel and decor in the tank. Fill with water and add water conditioner. Install and plug in your filter. Install and plug in your heater.

3. Go to the fish store…this is where most people make their first mistake.
The number/size of fish that you use to do a fishy cycle is your choice. However, the bigger your bioload (the amount of waste produced by fish…this is determined by number of fish, size, and to some extent species), the more work you will have to do. My suggestion would be to start with a few small fish, 2 or 3, no more. By small fish I mean danios, neons, guppies, baby platies, small cories, ect. The type and number of fish is dependent upon the size of the tank. PLEASE, ask for advice on this matter in the forums. You will likely get many and varied suggestions. Seek out the advise of a knowledge fish keeper as to what species of fish and how many to stock initially.

CAUTION: DO NOT purchase fish without doing your due diligence. Research! Research!! Research!!! Do not rely on the advice of lfs employee. Do not rely on the advice of your fellow fish keepers. Let your fingers do the walking…search search search. Gather as much information as you can on a particular breed so that you can make an informed decision. These are living creatures….It is your mission (and obligation!), should you choose to accept it, to provide these fishy friends with a healthy safe environment.
End of lecture.

4. Acclimate your new fishy friends, and then net them into the tank.

5. Now the work begins….

6. Starting on DAY 1, every AM and every PM, twice a day, every day, you will test for ammonia and nitrite. If either of these values exceed .25 ppm, you will immediately do a water change. How much you say? As much as it takes! If you have a reading of 4ppm ammonia (or nitrite), not only have you not been following directions, you have a big problem!

A 50% water change will still leave you with 2 ppm of ammonia, which is still a critical level. A 75% water change will still leave you with 1 ppm, still too much. A reading above 2 ppm will likely require two back to back water changes. Yes, really. Yes, this is ok. No, this will not remove all the good bacteria.

7. Rinse and repeat every morning and night.

8. On day 14, start testing for nitrate in addition to ammonia and nitrite.

9. Keep testing, keep changing water. Rinse and repeat.

10. When your ammonia and nitrate test at zero, and your nitrate tests at 5 ppm +/-….. the cycle is complete. You may now rejoice.

First hand experience from an aquarium newb

I am learning first hand what a difference a cycled tank makes. The Donna’s have really needed very little maintenance; every day I check their water and it shows no ammonia or nitrites. I feed them and move on. I will do regular water changes based on their nitrate, but it’s still reading really low and I’m learning through the tests how long I can wait between changes.

Meanwhile, Takeyo’s tank is cycling because I didn’t do a fish-less cycle on his tank before I got him. He looks terrible, his tail is trashed, but he’s still very active and that’s great. Every time I do a test his nitrites read 1.0 or more, which is sooo bad for any fish. I’ve now been doing 70% water changes every 12 or so hours and the work seems never-ending. I know some people would ask why I work so hard at it, and the answer is: this is a living thing. A creature God made and I agreed to take care of him as best I know how. So if I know that nitrites are not supposed to be that high for the health of a fish, I know that this is a process called cycling and it’s not a surprise (I regret not doing a fish-less cycle before I got him.) and I am the only person responsible for changing his water- well I gotta do it.

But what I learned from this is how much easier to cycle the tank without fish. You can let the levels skyrocket because you are not simultaneously trying to care for a living thing. Having the 2 tanks side by side really drives the point home.    

Take my advice: cycle your tank BEFORE you get any fish.

Eli

Eli

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

Hannah!

Hannah!

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

Mystery Snail

Mystery Snail

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

Half the time the mystery for me is: “is it alive? it hasn’t moved in 6 hours.” Apparently that is normal.

The survivors

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

These guys had the WORST DAY EVER on Saturday. But they’re fine today. All 9 present and accounted for. I must say, that’s a pretty tricky photo to get them all in 1 frame.
 

Oh, the horror!

I added 9 neon tetras to the Donnas today. I had read that if you complete cycle a tank with ammonia you must stock heavily right away or your bacteria will die back. Not that that’s a huge deal, you just add fish slowly then, but I wanted to take advantage of the happy condition my tank was in within the first 48 hours. It would still have been a really under stocked tank, with 15 small schooling fish in 29 gallons.

I went through the drip acclimation, which took a few hours, and then added the neons to the tank. Craziness ensued that included me actually banging the tank glass to get Orson and another of the Donnas to drop the neons from their mouths. What??!!! Now-where does it say in any of my fish books anything about black skirt tetras eating neon tetras. These two fish are listed together in all kinds of happy compatibility charts.

The survivors huddled in the cave while I fished out the Donnas into a bucket and then tore apart the tank looking for all 9 neons. I found 8 who are now living in the nano tank. I would never choose to put 8 fish in that little tank, but well, it’s better than certain death; it’s only possible death. I’ll hafta do a lot of water changes, especially since this tank was nowhere near cycled yet. augh.

PS. Found # 9 this morning, hiding from the school of Donnas. How in the world he hid from me last night I will never know. He’s now safely in the nano tank.

The Donnas

The Donnas came home last night, along with a snail who made a home in a cave. Maybe he’ll come out eventually, but I can see him in there and he’s just fine.

I named the fattest one Orson, since Paul and Hannah like that name so much and I rejected it when they suggested it as a name for Mr. Takeyo.

Mini-tank experiment

Mini-tank experiment

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

There is a whole category of aquarium keeping that refers to “nano” and Pico” tanks. Often these are planted tanks and the fauna themselves are secondary. They have a bad reputation because they tend to be impulse buys for children and the fish die from all kinds of mistakes, from overstocking to poor maintenance.

I hear a well done tiny tank can be a lot of work, and that’s right up my alley. I tend to be a tank putzer. I like doing water changes, and staring at the bubbles. It’s taken me a while to learn enough self control not to stress my fishes with constant maintenance.

I’ve begun a fishless cycle on this tiny tank, using 20 drops of ammonia to reach a ppm of .4. I usually prefer no substrate on a smaller tank to keep it clean, but I want as much surface area as possible for nitrifying bacteria. The filter is a tiny biowheel, so that will help.

This tank tends to run warm, (the filter is right in the water and heats it up) so I’ve chosen to forego a heater, it still stays around 73 degrees with the light off, higher with it on, and we’ve not even hit summer yet.

The warmer temps would suggest a couple of male guppies, but I’m also leaning toward 3 white cloud mountain minnows, since it is an unheated tank. I would definitely have to keep the light off and watch the temp in the summertime if I went with minnows, but I would have to consider a heater in the winter for guppies… hmmm…

Snails are another good choice for at tank this size, but the filter requires a pretty high water line, leaving very little room for any snail to hang around above the water line, so I’m thinking not.

The blue foam core board on the side and back serves multiple purposes: backdrop, to block incoming light from the window to the left to cut down on algae, and insulation against large temperature swings from said window.

The bubbler took some putzing to get the airflow right. Not too much, not too little. The bubbler will help keep bacteria growing too.

29 gallon

Just finished another fishless cycle!

6 weeks- This tank is now processing a tablespoon of ammonia every 12 hours. That’s a huge bioload!

I’ll keep feeding it ammonia daily to keep up the bacteria colony until someday when I have enough free time to go get my fish.

I’ve chosen to go with 7 black skirt tetras, collectively named “the Donnas”. I also plan on a school of neon tetras and haven’t decided if I’ll load the whole tank all at once or just get the Donnas first.

Prolly I’ll start with the Donnas, but my cycle will die back with so few fish and I’ll have to stock slowly after that. Bummer.