Llama

The article suggests that to start off the cycle you feed the tank using flakefood or a piece of shrimp/fish.

1) Does it have to be animal matter? Could I throw in a piece of vegetable instead? Will it have the same effect?

2) If I throw in the piece of fish, how long do I leave it there?

I usually used to prepare the tanks by just leaving them on their own for a while (filter + heater on)... will that take longer or something?

Shawnie

vegetables will work but IMO will take longer to break down....a small piece of raw shrimp will work and you leave it until you see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and a nitrate reading (which usually gets very high with the fish food method)

leaving the tanks doesnt give them an ammonia source to start the cycle without some kind of food....I have done the raw shrimp, and just finished two tanks with a pinch of fish food a day for a few weeks....goodluck!

Llama

Right, I'll be giving that a shot soon enough then. Thank you.

Also when (in terms of cycle time) would you recommend I add live plants?

Shawnie

ive read and others have used them right from the beginning. or added them at the end....so whenever you prefer

agabr123

i'd add them at the beginning personally, it can actually help your cycle along because the plants will use ammonia/nitrite and especially nitrAte. some people who have extremely heavily planted tanks do a "silent cycle" where the plants literally cycle the tank for them by using all of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate

Llama

Hmm, still didn't find any shrimp, so I ended up throwing some lettuce in the aquarium (I also added soem small plants), right now the lettuce is currently happily floating in the surface -_-

I also wasn't able to get a proper Ammonia test kit, but I bought a sticker thing which is supposed to notify you when ammonia gets too high

Apparently will change colour on .05mg/L , 0.20mg/L and .50mg/L

Will this suffice do you think?

Lucy

Nothing can substitute for a good test kit. The lettuce is going to make your water green. Tank water and lettuce is used to grow Infusoria.
You might be better off using fish food.

Llama

Oh right, forgot about infusoria for a second there -_-

*removes*

Fish food it is then!

capekate

I agree with Lucy,
and you will not find much of an ammonia source in that lettuce, no matter how much it breaks down. Ever notice how fish that is getting old starts to smell like ammonia? Basically it is breaking down. If you go to a restaurant and order fish, first off, fresh fish has no odor, but if you ever smell ammonia coming off your fish you best return it to the cook! If you can not find any raw fish, then I would suggest using fish food in small amounts. Can you find pure ammonia anywhere to use instead? Or you could ask your grocer for a scrap of fresh fish from his table.. you only need a teeny tiny piece to get it going, like an inch size.

Llama

Hmm, how about dead aquarium plants? Some leaves fell off when I badly manhandled them before I planted them.

Allright, just obtained a packet of king prawns, cut off the tail from one and sunk in it.

Now its time for the waiting game.

Llama

Allright, going to re-use this thread. I added the prawn part around 3 days ago.

My ammonia tester is a thingy stuck to the glass which is supposed to change colour when there's .05 mg/L , so far its still registering as safe (so less than that)

How long does it usually take to get first values of ammonia? I checked NO2 and NO3 and NO2 is still at 0...

How long does it usually take to get the first NH3 reading?

Lucy

The cycling process can take up to a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
You should be seeing ammonia in a couple of days.

In order to track your progress and you really should invest in a good liquid test kit such as thwe API master kit.

Your stick on thing doesn't test for nitrites, which are also toxic to your fish as are very high nitrates.

Llama

Right, minor update.

The little piece of prawn now has a white 'film' covering it for some reason, no idea what it is. Ammonia is still at 0, even though its clearly begun to rot or something. Could the plants be absorbing it all or something? Or could there have been a concentration of the bacteria in the well water? Going to buy a proper Nitrate test-kit on friday (I only have test strips right now, and I can understand what you people mean when you say 'unrealable').

Perhaps the piece I used was too small for the 45 gallon? Should I add another?

capekate

good morning..
Its ok to see the white film over the prawn, it is slowly decaying and will if not already start releasing ammonia.A little piece, may or may not be enough for your tank. I used one whole shrimp when I did mine, not a piece of one.
As far as the ammonia 'detector' that you have on the side of the glass, is not a tester, and I would not rely on that as any indicator. But as unreliable as some test strips can be IMO if you are showing some ammonia, your test strip will indicate that. It just may not be correct on the number reading.. but if you have ammonia in your tank, the test strip color will show you that. It took me 6 days in my 55 fishless cycle before I saw a small reading of ammonia .25
So IMO I would add more prawn, since its possible the piece you have in there is too small.
Best of luck!

Llama

Allright, I threw the rest of the prawn in, thanks for the advice

capekate

Your welcome! and good luck with that... keep us posted.

agabr123

good luck!

Llama

Update:

Finally bought a proper NH4/NH3 test, got 1 PPM at last , also have .5 ppm of NO2 it seems.

Do I leave the rotting prawns there?

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, leave it in there. You need to keep feeding the bacteria.
When I cycled my 80g it took weeks before my ammonia levels moved at all.

snowball

Let it stay after the nitrates shown up for a few days , add the fish and theyll start it from their.

Llama

I don't want to have fish in the aquarium while it cycles - plus I need to keep NO3 under control since my water source has 10ppm in it already.