Yeah, you need to have source of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to consume and grow... just leaving a tank running without any ammonia source doesn't work even if you dose bottled bacteria solutions as the bacteria will have nothing to eat and just die off.Originally Posted by peacefulday
I read many tank cycling methods but still got confused, I believed lots of casual fish keeper same as me, as in term of growing bacteria (some more got good and bad), thus I started to list down and ask for a rough 'layman' duration stages instead using measurement kits.
I suppose I can add a few small cheapo fishes or drop in a few fish food pellets into the cycling tank around two week later to create ammonia to feed bacteriapardon me if I talk like nonsense
Using hardy fishes to cycle the tank is one way, though the "fish-in" method does put alot of extra stress on those fishes and you have to constantly monitor the parameters to ensure that it doesn't get toxic for those fishes (have to do water changes to minimize the toxic effects). Later you will then need to remove those fishes before adding the actual fishes of equivalent mass you want to keep (its like a one-for-one bio-load exchange), then you'll also have to re-house those fishes that were previously used for cycling.
Doing a fishless cycle by adding fish food to rot and produce ammonia can work too, just have to be patient and monitor the cycle as it progresses.
Since you are looking at keeping discus which require lower pH softwater conditions, you might want to look at using active soil substrate like ADA Amazonia aquasoil, that soil softens the water and buffers the pH lower so it helps to create a tank environment suitable for the discus. In addition, ADA Amazonia aquasoil is meant for planted tanks and will release lots of ammonia meant feed plant growth, this ammonia will also kickstart and feed the beneficial bacteria colonies so you don't need to add anymore other ammonia source. So the soil basically helps establish both the tank environment and cycle.
Thats quite normal... the existing bacteria population in the seasoned filters is just going on "overdrive mode" trying to manage all the extra ammonia released by the new ADA Aquasoil (hence the cloudiness due to excess bacteria growth). Once they process the ammonia, the excess bacteria will gradually die off and the cloudiness will clear up on its own.
Thanks UA for all informative replies. I keep discus before and didn't go thru any tank cycling and everything work well. I just got a custom made tank and intend to buy slightly high graded discus, and hope tank setup is ok.
I have a medium-size pc bogwood and I might use it to soften the water as I prefer a bare base for easier maintenance. I think I will just throw some tetrabits fish's pellet once a few days to start ammonia and feed beneficial bacteria.
And start add fishes around 6~8weeks, the longer time the saferhaha...
had been fishless cycles tank for about two weeks. The fish foods started decomposing and water slight cloud blur past few days, but yesterday it begin to turn clearer. Can I assume nitrate is working without using kit measurement? Will keep monitor the clearness of water. Can I start add in anti-chlorine water as my 3ft tank water level evaporate slightly. Might add in some cheapo small fishes in coming days too.
Unfortunately you can't know what stage the cycle is at or whether which bacteria are working by just looking at bacterial cloud or water clarity... it will require test kits to measure and find out the actual water conditions.
You can top up your tank with dechlorinated water.
2 weeks is still early days in a tank cycle.... it is highly recommended to get a test kit set (ie. API Freshwater Master Test Kit) to measure the water parameters, otherwise it will all just be wild guessing.
Try not to add livestock until after the tank is cycled, if you add in fishes just for the purposes of testing the cycle then you are basically running a fish-in cycle as the fishes will become the test subjects, that would defeat the purpose of doing a fish-less cycle in the first place.
just to share my discus tank after six month. I did a fishless cycles as mentioned on my previous post without using any measuring kit. very lucky everything is seem to work pretty fine
This is also my style of doing it. I have always seasoned my tanks without any testing. I just let nature take its course and have so far managed to have happy healthy fish for years.just to share my discus tank after six month. I did a fishless cycles as mentioned on my previous post without using any measuring kit. very lucky everything is seem to work pretty fine
But it does requires some experience and knowldege or understanding of the underlying processes though, without which it will not work. For beginners, it is essential for them to learn the principles of tank seasoning, namely cultivating an effective colony of beneficial bacteria. Thus, water testing is beneficial to them. Previously, before I learned about bacteria, fishkeeping was never satisfying.
Yeah, its indeed much easier to cycle tanks which have large water volumes. Often times the large water volume will dilute waste produced by the initial group of fishes so much so that ammonia takes a long time to build up (if lightly stocked, could be days and weeks before even registering any readings), sometimes such large tanks will just gradually cycle on its own without ammonia even getting a chance to reach toxic levels. Its all about water volume vs bio-load.
Larger tank volumes = Larger buffer against waste accumulation and parameter fluctuations.
On the other hand, nano tanks are much tougher to cycle, which are incidentally the same tanks most new aquarium keepers begin with, like those 10 liter small starter tanks. Just a few fishes will already spike up the ammonia levels in those tanks within just a few hours, hence the usual "why my fish are dying?" help threads.... its a big difference in bio-load handling capacity between 10 liters vs 300 liters.
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