I have tried to understand fishless Clycing but I cant get my head round it.

In nice clear (simple) bullet points can someone tell me what i need to buy, when i put it in, how i test the water etc.


Thanks in advance

You need all the equipment that you'd have for fish.

That's filter, heater (if tropicals) and substrate etc.

get a test kit capable of checking ph, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

Substrate and decs aren't essential but will all help with bacterial colonisation.

Fill the tank with conditioned (dechlorinated )tap water.

Turn everything on and let it all run and settle for a couple of days.

Either get some Household Ammonia (see the thread in stickies) and add small amounts (maybe a teaspoon at a time) and keep testing for Ammonia, once it reads 4 ppm, then leave it. Keep testing and as the Ammonia drops top it back up to 4ppm...or...

... put a good handful of fish food in an old stocking and put that in the tank, as it rots down it produces ammonia. Once it starts to get really gunky take it out and replace. Keep testing, add food regularly to maintain the Ammonia and remove it if it gets too high, 5ppm is the max.

You will go through the following;

Ammonia holding and then starting to drop, as this occurs Nitrite will increase and go off the scale and should then start to drop and, as it does you'll get Nitrate. You want to achieve Ammonia being processed to 0 within 12 hours, Nitrite at 0, Nitrate at less than 40ppm.

When ready to stock, a large water change to reduce Nitrate levels and rock and roll.


That's in a nutshell, if you have any queries then ask on here, it's free and there are lots of very knowledgeable peeps here.

Take a look at the graph at the bottom of EagleC's sig, it gives an idea how things will progress.

try the link in my signature - any questions?

Perfect, just what i needed thanks mate.

Quote:

Just one, why would you get(as your graph shows), Nitrate before Nitrite, when Nitrite is broken down into Nitrate?

well the graph actually shows a little nitrate and nitrite at the same time. It depends on the growth of the different bacterial strains and is intended as a guide. The real world rarely follows such an exact course.

Sorry mate, just being pedantic, I appreciate what your saying.

Jimmy - if that's all too much for you (some people really enjoy the working out, tinkering etc.) there is an alternative which is a bit more expensive but is idiot-proof - I managed it when I knew nothing about fishkeeping

You need to buy a bottle of Biomature, and a NitrIte test from Waterlife, and also their Bacterlife if you want as that is specified in instructions though I don't think it's necessary and just ignored this. You can buy Mail order here:

http://www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/order.htm

You will also need the ordinary set of ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and pH tests in due course, but to do it this way you must have the waterlife nitrIte test as the others do not measure high enough.

The other thing you need to know is the capacity of your tank.

Then follow the instructions on the Biomature bottle. Basically you add a measured amount of biomature daily, according to tank size, and start testing nitrIte level after a few days. When nitrIte reaches the specified level, you stop adding Biomature, but keep testing daily. When nitrIte measures 0 you can test the nitrAte level, do a partial water change with dechlorinated tap water to bring level down to 20 or below (so if your reading for nitrAte is 40, you change 50% of tank water) and you are done. You can do the adding Bacterlife or not as you like.

This will take 4-6 weeks.

Keep posting any queries.

it took me about 30 read reads to sort of understand the fishless cycle lol

Thanks for the advice BUT!

"This will take 4-6 weeks!!!!"


Does this mean that i cant get any fish for that long. Not that it makes any difference I only have a 60 litre BioOrb and dont know anyone who would go though this kind of process. I however want to do this right without any harm to the fish. But 4-6 weeks seems quite a long time