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how to do Fishless cycling

1K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  Beautifuldisaster172 
#1 ·
I just got a 20L from petco because of the $1 per gallon sale. and i saw awhile back someone was talking about fishless cycling, and i want to know how to do it. any tips?
 
#2 ·
#4 ·
Congrats on the new tank! Two small bits of advice in addition to what the link stated above. Try to get the commercial ace hardware 9% ammonia from Ace Hardware if your not sure about added products. If you put too much ammonia in (over roughly 5ppm), your cycle will not proceed. Don't be afraid to do a 30% water change (or whatever water change it takes to get the ammonia levels back to 5ppm).

If you use the Ace brand, it only takes a few ml to get the ammonia to the proper level.
 
#5 ·
If you put too much ammonia in (over roughly 5ppm), your cycle will not proceed.
That's not true. Ace was the first brand ammonia I used and I purposely put in 5-7ppm when I first tried this method. Your tank will still cycle. The saying is that when you have too much ammonia, the surplus slows down the bacteria. Its almost as if it stalls it in away. But I typically kept my temps in the mid 80s and purposely added over 5ppm. I walk away and only add more ammonia once at 1ppm, no w/c. My tanks still cycle within 6-8 weeks. Once the tank cycles it will clear 5-7ppm in 36-48hrs. At that point your tank is good and ready to take on a decent size introductory load.
 
#8 ·
Are you setting up a planted tank? IME, if you put in a whole bunch of plants, and you have the conditions to get even half-decent growth, and you have few fish to begin with, you won't need to cycle at all. If you have some filter media from an established tank, then you definitely won't need to. I would just go heavy on plants, go easy on fish, and test every day. If you do see an ammonia spike, which I doubt, then do water changes as often as necessary.
 
#9 ·
One of the main points to a fishless is to prevent fish loss. Sure you can use established media and a butt load of plants, but its just too easy can cheap to do a fishless cycle. Less headache and no need to test everyday. Besides depending on the size of tank, some people can't add a butt load of plants in the beginning nor have access to establish media.
 
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