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What products do I need to cycle a new tank? How do I go about it?
Cycling a new tank
- Thread starter xcourtney3
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The article posted above does have some good info. I have an additional suggestion to make. If you purchase a bottle of Seachem Prime, and add the recommended dose DAILY during your cycle, you should not lose any fish. What the Prime does is take the ammonia and convert it into ammonium, which still feeds the bacteria that you need to grow in your filter, but does not burn the fish. It makes them much more comfortable, but still allows the cycle to take place. Similar products such as AmmoLock do not work quite the same. I have been using Prime for years, and it is both the best and most cost effective product available. Again, you must dose the tank DAILY. Prime only stays viable in the water for 24-36 hours.
Prime also removes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals. Where I live the water has so much chlorine in it, it burns my eyes when I stand over the sink doing dishes. Think of what that does to a poor fish's gills!
Once your tank is set up, and important thing to remember is not to throw your filter pads away. If you change the pad, you will remove the majority of the beneficial bacteria in the tank and the cycle will start all over again. You also must not rinse the pads in tap water, because that will also kill the bacteria. When I need to clean my filters I siphon some water from the tank into a bucket and use that to clean the filter pads. Then I top off the tank. That way the bacteria stays alive and you don't recycle your tank every time you clean it.
Prime also removes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals. Where I live the water has so much chlorine in it, it burns my eyes when I stand over the sink doing dishes. Think of what that does to a poor fish's gills!
Once your tank is set up, and important thing to remember is not to throw your filter pads away. If you change the pad, you will remove the majority of the beneficial bacteria in the tank and the cycle will start all over again. You also must not rinse the pads in tap water, because that will also kill the bacteria. When I need to clean my filters I siphon some water from the tank into a bucket and use that to clean the filter pads. Then I top off the tank. That way the bacteria stays alive and you don't recycle your tank every time you clean it.
I always have just stocked lightly and waited about six weeks. Kristina is much more up on the current crop of products than me, but back in the day, I did side by side comparisons and found no difference between tanks started with product and tanks started without.
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What about Seachem's Stability or Tetra SafeStart? And, can I use minnows to cycle the tank?
You can try the Stability, but I do not have much faith in products that claim to contain "live" bacteria. How is the bacteria sustained in the bottle with no food and no water flow?
SafeStart is very different from Prime, and will not create the same effect that I mentioned.
You can use minnows, they do produce a lot of waste, and what will you do with them when the cycle is over?
SafeStart is very different from Prime, and will not create the same effect that I mentioned.
You can use minnows, they do produce a lot of waste, and what will you do with them when the cycle is over?
There are some good products out there, but I always used to stock lightly for the first 8 weeks, and simply introduce bacteria from an established aquarium. I would just go to another aquarium (my own or a friend's), and either siphon off the detritus from the bottom if it had a under-gravel filtration, or even better, squeeze out the brown matter from the filter pad of a hanging power filter. Either way, I would just dump the bacterial suspension into the new aquarium, and give it a head-start on getting established. By the way, the suspension It's perfectly safe to handle, and it's perfectly to safe to dump right into the aquarium. As Kristina said, though, make sure you're not using any water that still has chlorine in it at any point, or most of the bacteria will die (which is, of course, why water treatment plants add chlorine to their water: to kill harmful bacteria).
Unlike the kind of bacteria people usually think of (Staphylococcus, E. coli, etc.), nitrifying bacteria grow very slowly for a bacterium. Whereas Staph and E. coli reproduce every 1/2 hour or so, nitrifiers reproduce only every 16-18 hours, or about 30-40 times more slowly than common bacteria. This is because, whereas most bacteria rely on energy-rich foods like sugars and proteins, nitrifiers rely on nitrogenous wastes (ammonia and nitrite), which are a good resource, but don't provide much energy. This is why it takes 6-12 weeks to establish a new tank. However, seeding the tank with either a bottled product or bacteria from an established aquarium can accelerate the process by a few weeks. Nevertheless, the bacteria still reproduce slowly, so it's best to keep the bio-load low by limiting how many fish are in the tank, and by limiting how much they are fed. It's also a good idea to use fish capable of tolerating poor water quality for a while (like guppies, for example). Otherwise, ammonia and/or nitrite could accumulate in the tank, and the fish could get sick or die.
Unlike the kind of bacteria people usually think of (Staphylococcus, E. coli, etc.), nitrifying bacteria grow very slowly for a bacterium. Whereas Staph and E. coli reproduce every 1/2 hour or so, nitrifiers reproduce only every 16-18 hours, or about 30-40 times more slowly than common bacteria. This is because, whereas most bacteria rely on energy-rich foods like sugars and proteins, nitrifiers rely on nitrogenous wastes (ammonia and nitrite), which are a good resource, but don't provide much energy. This is why it takes 6-12 weeks to establish a new tank. However, seeding the tank with either a bottled product or bacteria from an established aquarium can accelerate the process by a few weeks. Nevertheless, the bacteria still reproduce slowly, so it's best to keep the bio-load low by limiting how many fish are in the tank, and by limiting how much they are fed. It's also a good idea to use fish capable of tolerating poor water quality for a while (like guppies, for example). Otherwise, ammonia and/or nitrite could accumulate in the tank, and the fish could get sick or die.
+1 for using bacteria from an established aquarium. Your local fish store will usually be happy to let you have some squeezings out of one of their dirty filters if you don't have any other tanks running.
I've never used Prime but I hear great things about it.
There are also some folks that insist on putting small quantities of their own urine in a new tank and then running it without fish for a couple weeks to get bacteria growing.
I've never used Prime but I hear great things about it.
There are also some folks that insist on putting small quantities of their own urine in a new tank and then running it without fish for a couple weeks to get bacteria growing.
I hesitate using filter squeezings from a store - god knows what else might be in there (ick, fungus, etc.) But from an established aquarium, yes, it works. I have 12 running tanks from 10-125 gals, it is a cinch to throw up a new one using cycled media.
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I suggested minnows because I also have a turtle tank set up so they'll be eaten. If not minnows, what fish can survive cycling?
Re: Squeezings
Yeah, I would rather use squeezings from my own tanks or a person I trust. As Kristina said, you never know what's in a store's aquarium. I don't introduce their water into my tank, so why would I introduce their filter squeezings? As for Chairman's point, though, I have found that pet stores are not necessarily happy to give you squeezings. My friend was setting up a new tank a few years ago, and I took him to a big box pet store and asked the clerk for squeezings (and explained what I meant). She did not want to do anything without the manager, but when the manager came out he refused to give me any squeezings, saying he was afraid I could get an infection or something. I explained it was harmless, but he still refused, and just asked us to buy a cycling product. Maybe he was afraid of being liable in a lawsuit, but I think he just wanted us to buy something, which we did.
Re: Cycling without fish
The thought has occurred to me that I could pee (a little) into my tank to cycle it without any fish in it, but I didn't think anybody actually did that!
Mammalian urine would work, since its urea breaks down to ammonia fairly quickly outside the body. However, it's not even necessary to do that, since you can just put in regular household ammonia in small quantities to simulate fish waste. It's a good way to cycle a tank without risking any fish as long as you follow the equation to prevent the concentration from getting too high (I have done it). I suppose it might take longer, though (unless you seed it), since it would not have any animals introducing bacteria from their bodies into the system.
Re: Good cycling fish
All fish would prefer to have clean water, but some are better at tolerating the high nitrogen conditions of a cycling tank than others. Here is a list of fish that are both fairly tough and fairly cheap, since they are at risk of dying.
Cool water:
Fathead/rosy red minnows (Pimephales promelas)
Goldfish (may be a bit delicate due to poor conditions in store; relatively high waste due to greater girth/weight for a given length)
Tropical:
Betta (one of the most tolerant fish of poor water quality, but prefers fairly shallow water and non-fin-nipping tank mates)
Guppy (technically brackish, but does fine in freshwater)
Brackish:
Guppy
Marine:
Damselfishes
Yeah, I would rather use squeezings from my own tanks or a person I trust. As Kristina said, you never know what's in a store's aquarium. I don't introduce their water into my tank, so why would I introduce their filter squeezings? As for Chairman's point, though, I have found that pet stores are not necessarily happy to give you squeezings. My friend was setting up a new tank a few years ago, and I took him to a big box pet store and asked the clerk for squeezings (and explained what I meant). She did not want to do anything without the manager, but when the manager came out he refused to give me any squeezings, saying he was afraid I could get an infection or something. I explained it was harmless, but he still refused, and just asked us to buy a cycling product. Maybe he was afraid of being liable in a lawsuit, but I think he just wanted us to buy something, which we did.
Re: Cycling without fish
The thought has occurred to me that I could pee (a little) into my tank to cycle it without any fish in it, but I didn't think anybody actually did that!
Mammalian urine would work, since its urea breaks down to ammonia fairly quickly outside the body. However, it's not even necessary to do that, since you can just put in regular household ammonia in small quantities to simulate fish waste. It's a good way to cycle a tank without risking any fish as long as you follow the equation to prevent the concentration from getting too high (I have done it). I suppose it might take longer, though (unless you seed it), since it would not have any animals introducing bacteria from their bodies into the system.Re: Good cycling fish
All fish would prefer to have clean water, but some are better at tolerating the high nitrogen conditions of a cycling tank than others. Here is a list of fish that are both fairly tough and fairly cheap, since they are at risk of dying.
Cool water:
Fathead/rosy red minnows (Pimephales promelas)
Goldfish (may be a bit delicate due to poor conditions in store; relatively high waste due to greater girth/weight for a given length)
Tropical:
Betta (one of the most tolerant fish of poor water quality, but prefers fairly shallow water and non-fin-nipping tank mates)
Guppy (technically brackish, but does fine in freshwater)
Brackish:
Guppy
Marine:
Damselfishes
Ah, I guess I forgot that for some folks the only local fish stores available might not be quality, smaller mom/pop operations. Before you accept any squeezings you should check tank occupants for signs of trouble. And make sure to check all of the tanks that share the same sump.
I have never used human urine to cycle a tank, but on some fish forums the people that swear by it can't be swayed. Personally, I would never do it because if my 3 year old daughter ever caught a glimpse of such a thing I think she'd try to empty every potty chair offering into a tank until I threw out the chairs! And even then, she's got a personality where I can just imagine her climbing up to squat over a tank...
I have never used human urine to cycle a tank, but on some fish forums the people that swear by it can't be swayed. Personally, I would never do it because if my 3 year old daughter ever caught a glimpse of such a thing I think she'd try to empty every potty chair offering into a tank until I threw out the chairs! And even then, she's got a personality where I can just imagine her climbing up to squat over a tank...
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