Steve420

Hi all,

Hopefully this will be a pretty simple response for everyone. I'll start off by apologizing if this has been covered in a previous thread, but I've searched and clicked through the forum but haven't found my answer (I know some other forums I regularly visit are very picky about this...)

Anyway, I've read through the Nitrogen Cycle articles and many of the threads about it. I've just setup my 55 gallon and am trying to get my fishless cycling process moving along. A lot that I have read recommends "seeding" the tank to help speed up the process. So here are my questions

1) Do I NEED to seed the tank, or will the cycle begin on its own? (with the addition of Ammonia, or course)

2) If I do seed the tank, how long can the "good" bacteria live outside of the water...i.e. if a co-worker brings me a little baggie of gravel, would it be okay to wait all day (8 hours) before I can get it into the water? Or will that length of time just kill the bacteria that I need.

Okay, thats all for now!
Thanks in advance,
Steve

nitz

Hi Steve. You don't NEED to seed the tank but that will help speed up the process. Without seeding, it'll just take a bit longer for that bacteria to grow to a large enough population to handle the bioload of the fish.

If you're getting gravel from a friend, ask him to keep it in tank water. So if he's bringing it in a bag, tell him to put water in the bag to cover the gravel. As far as I know, the bacteria don't live long at all outside of water. Better yet, ask him to put the gravel in a bucket or container (with a lid if possible) and have the water level just above the gravel. Hope that helps.

EDIT: To help speed up the cycling process, you can get either Tetra Safe Start or Biospira by Marineland. These both contain the bacteria necessary to cycle your tank and can get it done in about a week.

jdhef

Yes, you can cycle without seeding. It just takes a bit longer.

I would think that as long as the gravel stays wet and fairly warm (room temp should be fine) that the bacteria would be fine by the time you got home from work.

Of course the other option would be to use either BioSpira or Tetra Safe Start to cycle the tank immediately. With either of those two products you just add it to the tank then immediately add your fish. Then after 7 days you can test your water to make sure that it cycled correctly.

EDIT: Apparently I was typing the same time nitz was typing...and he types faster. Sorry for the repeat info.

Lucy

Hi Steve, you don't need to seed the tank, but it helps things move along quicker.

If your friend brings you gravel, you have to make sure you keep it wet and warm, otherwise it'll start to die off. I'm not sure about the time frame for this or how long bacteria can go without dying off with a source of ammonia.
If I were to take a guess, it'd be that after 8hrs you'd lose it.

I hope that helped a little. Good luck.

Edit: Dang, I type slow. lol

Steve420

wow..this forum is great. 4 views and 3 good replies...all within 5 minutes. Glad I joined here.

I did use Prime as a conditioner when I added tap water to the tank. I read through that whole long thread about Prime & BioSpira mixing. The Prime was added on Monday night, so would I be okay to add BioSpira/Tetra Safe Start now? And does those 2 eliminate the need to add Ammonia?

and jdhef, when you say I could immediately add my fish after adding BioSpira, I'll assume that is optional?? Or do the fish contribute to the cycling process? The reason I ask is because I am not 100% sure about what I want to stock the tank with. I'm new to fishkeeping and really want to continue to research all possible options.

EDIT: After further review it was actually 10 minutes , but impressive still

nitz

I can't really answer your question on whether you can use biospira or tetra safe start now (after prime was used earlier) because neither is available up here and I have no experience with them. If you choose to use either of them and still want to go fishless, you can add ammonia to the water to build sustain the bacteria. Just make sure you add ammonia everyday until you have fish. Well do a big water change the day before you get fish to bring down the nitrate level and to make sure there isn't any ammonia level when they go in. After they're in, they'll produce the ammonia for the bacteria and they'll be fully supported.

And this is a really great forum. Glad you joined us.

jdhef

After adding BioSpira or Safe Start, the bacteria they supply needs to be fed with ammonia or it will die off and you'll be back to square one. So you can do one of the following:

1. Add the BS or SS and add the fish right away.
2. Add the BS or SS and add ammonia* everyday to feed the bacteria.
3. Wait until you have decieded on your fish before adding BS or SS
* Make sure to use an ammonia without additives

mrsmuffin

You could also use fish food as your source of ammonia for option 2 if you wanted too.

jdhef

Yes, you could use fish food. The only drawback being that when the fish food breaks down it releases phosphates into the water which can lead to excessive algae.

mrsmuffin

Oops, didn't think about that...

Steve420

So I've decided to go the Tetra Safe Start route. I went to a LFS and picked up a bottle....$27.00...ouch, but if it does what it should it'll be well worth it. I was actually going to buy a few fish to get started, but after looking at the tanks and seeing at least 1-3 dead fish in every other tank, I decided to look elsewhere and just pick up the Safe Start.

On a side note...the lack of training and knowledge at one of my LFS was rediculous. After I picked up the Safe Start and went to check out, I decided to see just how knowledgeable the store guy really was...conversation went something like this:

Me: So this is supposed to help cycle my tank in like a week or so, huh?
Him: Ummm..yeah something like that. Like 7 days.
Me: (I'm little skeptical at this point due to his blank stare when "cycling" was mentioned) Okay, so I should be adding fish immediatley after adding this to my tank?
Him: You probably could, but I recommend waiting the 7 days.

Yikes...if I listened to this guy, I'd be dropping 27 bucks every week and still stuck at square one!!!

clinton1621

Just so you have an answer about the prime.... it only lasts in a tank about 24 hours, after that the ammonia that it was 'holding' is released back into the water