G'day
This is my first post, but I have a fair bit of experience with fishless cycling, so I thought I would pipe in and hopefully my experiences can help others.
Please excuse excused my long winded comments and slow replies.
I am suffering chronic pain and chronic depression thanks to a Workplace injury. The meds affect my brain and I'm often repeating myself, or forgetting specific words which will have me either trying to describe the word, or putting my phone down and waiting until I can remember the word. I'm also unreliable as I find I'm overrun with mail and other groups I subscribe to. I'm also learning Tapatalk and how it works.
Anyways back to the topic...
Aside from my first tank which caused a lot of stress thanks to some bad advice from the local fish shop. All my other tanks have been cycled with ammonia and without fish.
I have found I can cycle smaller tanks in about 5-7 days.
5 drops of ammonia into a 5 litre tank will result in 4ppm of ammonia. Unfortunately 1drop per litre doesn't result in 4ppm, but the smaller tanks come close.
The formula that I use will come close to a week to cycle.
4ppm for ammonia, so test daily.
About mid week the ammonia level will slowly drop, so add ammonia to maintain 4ppm.
The Nitrites will start to show as Ammonia drops.
About the next day the Ammonia will drop fast. The Nitrates will also jump.
Keep pumping Ammonia into the tank to maintain 4ppm.
Towards the end of the week the nitrates will start to show, so keep the Ammonia at 4ppm.
Over the next day or 2 the Nitrates will hit 60ppm or higher. It will be a very dark red on the API test kit. And the others will drop to 0ppm.
The tank is now cycled, but to ensure a strong bacteria level, keep adding up to 4ppm Ammonia for a few days longer. This will prevent a crash if something goes wrong.
While adding Ammonia try and keep the pH to around 7 which is the preferred level for the bacteria.
On the day, but after adding the Ammonia get a filter pad from an established tank and squeeze it in the tank water near the filter inlet so it gets sucked up. Squeeze around the tank as well, so the bacteria has a chance to settle on the substrate. Another good thing is to add some noodles from an established tank and pop them into the filter.
Keep the temperature at 27 Celsius as that is the ideal temperature the bacteria prefer
The bacteria can handle up to 5ppm, and some suggest that, but higher will slow the cycle down and even kill it off.
I have also cycled bigger tanks and generally they can cycle in a week, but my experiences show that a 70 litre tank will cycle at a week, but that's probably the cutoff as bigger will take a little longer.
Another tip which confuses some and can mess up the cycle.
When doing a fishless cycle we cycle it up to or near a fully stocked tank. Because of this, a full tank of fish need to be added up front.
Some who cycle fishless will then add fish in smaller groups as if a fish cycle which then results in the bacteria dying off to the level that is right for the amount of fish that are currently in the tank. Some believe that the bacteria isn't dead, just hybernating and will wake up as needed. They are half right according to my experiences. It will still go through a mini cycle, even though there's sufficient bacteria there. Some fish losses may result from adding too many fish at once.
I'll save up for the fish I want, then when I can afford it, I'll do a fishless cycle and when I'm ready to stock the tank, I'll do a good water change, then add the fish. If it will be a planted tank, I'll also plant some plants and over the next few days I'll scape it up , add Co2 if the tank is designed for it, and gradually raise the Co2 to the desired levels so as not to shock the fish.
I hope I have covered everything, and while long, I hope it says all that's needed and helps others.
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