okay well out of all the years ive had tanks ive never truly cycled my tanks only left it running empty for a day or so and never had any problems (i know shame on me haha) but now that im setting up my 150 gallon tank and getting more expensive fish i want to be sure nothing goes wrong that was avoidable so im going to get an api freshwater masters kit but thats as far as i know what to do do i just let the tank sit empty and running for a few weeks taking readings until the levels are good and what are the proper levels btw? i know ammonia is supposed to be at 0 right? i could use some help as you can tell so if someone could tell me what to do i would appreciated it greatly thanks you!

to cycle your tank the way you want it i would do a fishless cycle, you fill the tank up and create an ammonia source to help the start or your nitrogen cycle, get an ammonia that is free of perfumes, colors, or any other additives, i dont want to say how much to put in at a time because im not too sure at the moment myself, doing a cycle this way will usually be faster than a fish in cycle would and would be better to build the benificial bacteria to sustain the more expensive ( usually more delicate ) fish that you are looking at keeping, in no way is that complete and you should read up on cycling your tank on your own first hand, a website that helped me out alot when i jumped into the hobby is Firsttankguide.net it wouldnt hurt to give it a look and it'll explain everything alot better and more thorough than i have, good luck with your 150g.

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

Cycling does not mean letting the tank run for a period of time. It refers to the nitrogen cycle. I would suggest reading up on it to understand what your tank will have to go through. The cycle doesn't start until an ammonia source is introduced into the tank. Fish provide that ammonia or you can use an alternate source as mentioned and do a fishless cycle.

You have a very large tank so I would use one fish per 10 gallons. If your tank is below 76F use White Mountain Clouds as cycling fishes. Above 76F use Female Bettas. If you have a high ph use Mollies or Guppies. Add some plants, Val or Java Fern are good. Plants help temper the cycling process.

Here's a good link on some reading you can do about the aquarium nitrogen cycle:

The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

I would do a planted tank. If you have fish that will attack plants protect the plants with some kind of refugium which could be just a partition.

By balancing out and stabilizing the system with live plants the cycle is much easier and the fish do better.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

+1

More like 0.05

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Hello chief...

My resident "cycling" expert Dave, tells me cycling a tank is really simple, just takes about six weeks. Set up the tank with the appropriate heaters, power filters and lighting close to 2 watts per gallon of tank volume and three inches or so of standard pea gravel, some stem plants like Water wisteria and Pennywort and get some real hardy fish like Zebra Danios and Platys, say a dozen total and you're good.

Cycling your tank with fish at least gives you some activity in the tank and if you pay close attention to your water tests and do the water changes, the fish will be fine.

The fish will produce ammonia from their wastes and that begins the cycle. Just test your tank water daily and when you see traces of ammonia or nitrites, change about 25 percent of the water to bring the water conditions back into the safe zone.

Follow this routine until your ammonia and nitrites read "0" consistently, then add some more fish. Back to the daily testing, until your ammonia and nitrites remain at "0", until your tank is fully stocked.

A 150 G tank and large, frequent water changes will support quite a large number of fish.

Good luck. Above everything else, have fun.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

Cool, I was just going to post a thread asking about getting the cycle started, but here's one already! I just filled up a 55 gallon tank and the filters are going, but I used gravel that was in my 75 gallon tank for over a year, but the said gravel was sitting in a bucket in the garage for about two weeks(I switched the gravel out of the 75 for different gravel). Question is, is the beneficial bacteria still present on the rocks, or did it die off from being outside of the water? Thanks!

Hello imp...

There may be some beneficial bacteria in the gravel, but conditions in your garage aren't the best, so don't rely on it. It's best to allow the bacteria to grow in the filter media, specifically in the sponge or polyfiber (biological) media. The material in the bottom of the filter. This takes time, so patience is a good thing now.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

Okay. I have a tetra whisper ex70 and a top fin 60 power filter on my 75. Gonna take the top fin 60 and put it on the new 55. The Top Fin filter has been on my 75 tank for over a year. This should help. Thanks, and oh sorry for hijacking the thread lol. Oh we also have a 10 gallon tank that is heavy planted(fake ones) so we took a few out of there and put them in the 55, also a couple of large river stones.

There are lots of different ways to set up new tanks, I would suggest going with the planted cycle:
Aquarium Cycling
There is of course, like I said, other ways to cycle the tank, like slowely adding hardy fish, or adding ammonia, and things like that. But, both of those are harder to do then just to pick up a few hardy plants at the pet store. I personally use the planted cycle when setting up my tanks, but it is up to you hope it helps!

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29 Gallon Tank
1 Betta
2 Peppered Cory Catfish
3 Glow Light Tetras
3 Jumbo Neon Tetras
3 Rasboras

It's also called a silent cycle. There's tons of threads about it on the forum

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

okay i have a question if i do a fishless cycle i have to put im pure ammonia right? and keep it around 4 or 5 ppm? so when i put the water in i wouldnt use dechloranator right? i know the one i have removes chlorine and ammonia so would i just not put any of that in until the cycle is completed?? im confused about this help me out or would it just be easyer to put fish in there and do it the old fashion way? haha

From what I understand about the fishless cycle you put in pure ammonia so you get an initial concentration of ammonia. Say 3-4 ppm or so. Then as the bacteria build up the tank will adjust so the amount you're dosing is consumed by the bacteria. After the nitrItes drop down you then switch from dosing the ammonia and stock up the tank with fish.

But ask others here as that is just what I have read.

I use the planted silent cycle which involved a mix of fast growing plants and slower growing plants. You stock the tank with plants then wait a week for the plants to get established. Then (10g) add a single fish and not add food for a week. After that you (kinda) stock up the tank (live bearers initial male then 2 females, tetras like neons or danios an initial single fish then 4 more) and start feeding 1 flake per day.

What happens you get low to no ammonia/nitrIte spikes that last at most a day. But an initial nitrates spike. then as the bacteria build up nitrates drop down to numeasureable levels.

I just prefer the planted cycle because it is so easy and stable enough that it corrects operator error within very large operating conditions.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

okay well now i think im just going to do a cycle where i put in some hardy fish and let nature take its course so i put in the dechlorinator right? and do i need to do anything else besides feed and clean the tank? and test it every other day or so until the readings are good?

Hello again chief...

The method I gave you in an earlier post is the traditional cycling method. Just review it. Your tap water will need to be treated with Seachem's Prime or another product that removes ammonia, chlorine and chloramine from the water. Just feed the fish a little, a couple times a day, no more than they can eat in a minute or two. Test your tank water every day and do your water changes as needed to keep the water conditions stable.

If you need any help, just ask anyone on this forum.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

Hello again chief...

The method I gave you in an earlier post is the traditional cycling method. Just review it. Your tap water will need to be treated with Seachem's Prime or another product that removes ammonia, chlorine and chloramine from the water. Just feed the fish a little, a couple times a day, no more than they can eat in a minute or two. Test your tank water every day and do your water changes as needed to keep the water conditions stable.

If you need any help, just ask anyone on this forum.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

A quick correction:

Most tap water conditioners that "fix" ammonia don't actually remove it. Rather, they contain chemical compounds which bond with the ammonia molecules, rendering them non-toxic to fish and "lock" the ammonia (see API Ammo-Lock for any questions). However, ammonia-locking agents like that make the ammonia harder to be consumed by nitrifying bacteria, while they will still show up in ammonia testing kits. Result: you will never be sure when your nitrogen cycle is fully established, because the tank will always test positive for ammonia. And, at the same time, your fish can still be killed from nitrite, the second stage in the nitrogen cycle.

Now, on to the good stuff...

I would suggest using a dechlorinator ONLY. No ammonia neutralizing agents, no biological supplements, and no aquarium salt. In my opinion, it keeps water changes pretty simple and hassle-free - you empty your tank, fill buckets, add dechlor, and siphon buckets into tank. Presto!

You can do a fish-in cycle if you wish, using hardy fish. I hope you know you're intentionally setting them up to be poisoned and *hoping* they survive. That's cruel in my opinion, but that's just me. I know people on here who use feeder goldfish to start their cycle and both the dead and live contingent will end up getting fed to their oscars or turtles anyways. Keep in mind that once your cycle is established, you're stuck with the fish you used unless you can find somewhere to donate them (most local pet stores will accept donations, but big stores like PetsMart and PetCo will not).

Just my thoughts. Don't want to rub anyone the wrong way, and I apologize if I do...

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

Hello Giz...

Thanks for the comment. Specifically, the water conditioners will detoxify the ammonia, chlorine and chloramine. Seachem calls this removal in their "Prime" ads. Anyway, for our purposes, we don't care so much about why it works, just that it does work.

The hardy fish used to cycle a tank are fine as long as you monitor the water chemistry and do the prescribed water changes as soon as there's a trace of pollutants in the water.

The cycling environment is no different then doing large and frequent water changes during the life of the tank. You simply stay ahead of the waste by flushing large amounts of pure, treated water through the tank. This simple routine guarantees the stability of the water and this is the most important thing if you want to maintain a successful aquarium.

Just a thought.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper