Iggy’s Tank Cycle Recipe

[Iggy]

This is the recipe I used to fishless cycle my 10 to 38 gallon tanks in 1 to 3 weeks.

Items:
· Your Tank (nothing under 5 gallons this recipe)
· No Fish (any fish in the tank need to be removed or they will all die from the cycle)
· Thermometer (any fish tank style, I prefer submersible glass thermometers)
· Gravel, plants, & decorations in the tank
· Air stone & Air pump (any)
· Filter (any including HOB power, canister, under-gravel)
· Heater (5 to 10 watts per gallon)
· 1 Bottle of Ammonia (no additives, no perfumes, no dies)
- household ammonia will do, but make sure it has no surfactants (additives) and no perfumes/color, either of these will poison the water
- The ingredients on the bottle should only say: 'Water + Ammonia'
- Safeway brand (clear) works and West Best Ammonia All-Purpose Cleaner also works. If your not sure, call the supplier/distributor and ask!
· 1 Ammonia Test Kit
· 1 Nitrite Test Kit
· 1 Nitrate Test Kit (optional)

Do the following:
1. Setup your tank gravel, decorations, filters and airlines.
2. Fill the tank completely with treated (dechlorinated and dechloraminated) water.
3. Turn on your filtration system and air pump devices.
4. Turn your Heater on and set to 84F, check your tank thermometer after a few hours to verify the tank water temperature is between 83 and 84F
5. The first time you add ammonia, add small quantities (about 1/4 to 1/2 capful) slowly and test after you add each time (give it 3 to 5 minutes in between to circulate before your test) until you get an ammonia test reading of around 5ppm. The reason you have to add ammonia this way is because most ammonia bottles are diluted with water at different ratios. Markdown or remember the total amount (capfuls) it took to get to 5ppm for your tank volume.
6. Every day, once a day, add the total amount of ammonia that it took to bring your tank ammonia test kit to 5ppm. Do this till the very end of the nitrite cycle.
7. It will take about 3-5 days for your ammonia levels to go to 0ppm after 24 hours, and the first of the two bacteria cycles to complete.
8. Keep adding the ammonia (same amount and every day, once a day) until your nitrite levels become 0pmm after 24 hours, which can take about 2 to 3 weeks time. The nitrite levels will spike for a longer time because the nitrite to nitrate processing bacteria take longer to grow than the ammonia to nitrite bacteria.
9. After the nitrite shows 0ppm (clear), change as much water as you can (leave they gravel/substrate/decorations in the tank) to get rid of the bulk of the nitrate buildup (you can use your nitrate test kit to confirm if you want). Don't 'clean' the tank or use sanitizers, just remove the bulk of the water and replace it with treated water.
10. Now you can fully stock your tank with fish, the 2nd cycle is complete! This means you can add as many fish as your tank size and filtration can manage.
11. If you do not add your full capacity of fish after the fishless cycle is complete, remember that next time you more add fish, add only a few at a time, because the bacteria colonies you built-up during the cycle would have died off a little (from lack of food) so you need to give it time to recover (which can take a few weeks).

To help speed up the process:
a. If you have access to filters or filter media (sponge/bio-wheel/etc) from an established/healthy tank, this will speed up the cycle process considerably! HOWEVER if you plan on removing the filter after your done the cycle, remember you should not fully-stock your tank to start off with, because you will be removing a good portion of the bacteria colony when you remove the filter media.
b. If you have a source of gravel from a healthy cycled tank, mix it into the new gravel to jump-start the colony. Same goes for decorations and filter media. Some LFS actually sell ceramic and other pre-cycled media you can add to your tank, but that will only help the process, it will not replace the time fully.
c. If you have access to a healthy tank (LFS), get them to supply a little water and squeeze the sponge filter into it and then you add it to your new tank water. This might make the tank water look a little murky for a while, but it really helps to seed the tank with the bacteria colonies. Some fish stores actually sell ceramic chips from cycled tanks.
d. Don’t skip or reduce the amount of ammonia till the tank is fully cycled (0pmm nitrite). The ammonia eating bacteria colonies need to stay feel fed to supply the nitrite eating colonies and promote growth
e. Do not use ammonia absorbing chemical filtration media like Zeolite. Some bubble filters have zeolite mixed in with the carbon (white flakes), so remove that filter if you suspect it has zeolite until the cycle is complete.
f. Do not make any water changes until the cycle is complete**
** The only exception is if you accidentally add too much ammonia, then you might need to do a large water change to bring the tank ammonia levels back to around 5ppm.
g. Some people have had good luck using fresh Bio-spira (must be refrigerated during storage to work). Avoid other ‘bottled’ cycle additives. I have had the same time periods with and without the additives, so save your money or buy it for some emotional support if you have to, but I don’t really think you need it.
h. Add some live plants to help control the nitrate levels. You will still (always) need to do regular water changes (I do 25% of the tank volume every week) to keep the nitrate levels from building up too high.

[levia7han]

great post iggy... Do I see sticky in your future.....

Lev

[FroggyFox]

I agree...good recipe, should be stickied.

I would add that the water change after the ammonia and nitrites reach 0 should be as close to 100% as possible, not just 50%.

Also, fresh Bio-spira has been shown to be the best (only) additive that has sped up the process immensely for a lot of people.

And one of the biggest advantages to the fishless cycle is that you can fully stock the tank right after that 100% water change at the end. If you stock it too slowly you might see some mini-cycles going on.

[rocketshrimp]

A small theory i have about this is that the reason the second bacteria takes longer to grow is because there is none of that bacteria already in the tank because it died because of lack of food, this is still true if you seed your tank(not true if using enough bio-spira to completely cycle your tank). Anyways what i'm trying to say is that you should seed your tank again after the ammonia spike.

I'm open for ideas and critical analysis of my "theory".

[Lotus]

Interesting theory rocketshrimp. When I have been cycling I usually rinse out any filters that need rinsing in the tank that's cycling. I can't say I have had any record-speed cycles yet, though. However, the more tanks I have, the less seeding there is to spread around in terms of decorations and gravel.

Maybe the second bacteria just has a slower metabolism and takes longer to divide/multiply.

[TaffyFish]

Great post, well done. Here's my contribution:-

g. live plants can be added right from the outset, there's no need to wait for the cycle to complete.

h. the most obvious and effective short cut is to use mature filter media from existing tanks. (Very few people try a fishless cycle with their first tank, most already have fish and at least one tank by the time they've come across fishless cycling.) You can achieve an almost instant cycle or a cycle within 7 days if you take some of your biological media from a canister, or swap in one or more sponges from internal filters. After all this is what a lot of people do to quickly re-commission their quarantine tanks.

[fishydude22]

sticky!

[pamcat]

Hi, I'd like to point out you didnt say what strength the ammonia was..1/4 teaspon was enough ammonia to bring my 46 gallon to 5.0ppm,, It might be wise to point out that each company uses a different strength of ammonia as there is no regulation amount to classify it as household ammonia..just helps people to understand to use small amounts

[Somonas]

Why dont we get peoples comments and criticisms, and then Iggy and repost her modified instructions in a new thread which will become stickied and part of the FAQ.

[pablo111]

very cool.

I have yet to set up a 20 gal- but i will consider this when i do. thanks! well written too