lyndatu

I currently have 2 running tanks. One is a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium(main tank) , which I exploded with a lot of fish before it even cycled, because I didn't know about the cycle yet. It's quite foggy(yellowish) and dirty. The second tank is an 8 gallon freshwater quarantine tank, which has already cycled because I set up the quarantine tank when I already known about the cycle. It's even better and cleaner than my main tank. Now, I am planning to redo my main tank (clean, redecorate, use new filter, live plants and moss, etc., but not replace my fish). Before I am going to redo my tank, I am going to buy all the necessary equipment and perform all the necessary procedures because I now learned much more about aquariums (Thanks to Fishlore.com and you helpful guys).


Before the day of the redo, I have some questions and worries:



1. When my tank has redone and is about to cycle, that means I'm going to place the fish somewhere else. I was thinking of the quarantine tank, but it would be too small for all the fishes. I was also thinking of placing them in a basin or a bucket for the meantime because it worked before. Other ways?

2. I'm also confused on how to start the cycle. Putting some fish food in it may be bad. Can I place a few fishes in the tank to start the cycle? A couple of barbs, or some shrimps, maybe? Other inexpensive ways of starting the cycle?

3. How do you speed up the cycle except for putting beneficial bacteria in it that came from other cycled tanks? Do plants help in speeding the cycle?

Thanks in advance!

COBettaCouple

the way we cycled fishless was with fish food every 12 hours. Fish will speed it up, but if you were to cycle with fish, i'd recommend using prime and water changes to cycle slower but safer. plants would help with the nitrates.

Peterpiper

OK So you have a QT That would hold 1/3 of your fish while you redo the main tank.. have you any friends that could loan you a tank for a bit? some good LFS will lend a 10g tank ( in australia ) you give a sum of $ which is refunded when you return the tank, ask around and see if someone has a spare tank. just remember to really clean it before and after use..
ps welcome to fishlore. good luck!

lyndatu

Thanks to you all. I'm going to ask the shop if they can lend me a tank. Thanks for the helpful info!

0morrokh

I have cycled with flakes myself, but I no longer like the method because a) the flakes usually contain chemicals like phosphorus that will pollute the water, b) they make a big mess on the bottom, and c) it's not a very fast method. A way better way to cycle is to use pure ammonia (I think you can get unscented ammonia in cleaning sections of stores). Don't start the cycle using fish. This puts the fish through a lot of stress and the initial ammonia spike can easily kill them. It is also a ton of work for you because you have to constantly do water changes, plus it's the slowest method.

jsalemi

If you can't track down pure ammonia, you can put a piece of raw fish or a raw shrimp in the tank. It'll give off ammonia as it decays, feeding the cycle. You can put it in a mesh bag or an old nylon stocking to make cleanup easier later on.

COBettaCouple

we cycled the 29g tall in a little under 3 weeks using a combination of old fish flakes and pellets.

0morrokh

Gosh how'd ya talk the bacteria into growing that fast?? That's like a third of the time it always takes me to cycle with flakes!

COBettaCouple

i just kept putting a pinch in every 12 hours and kept the tank water temp as warm as i could. A warmer tank will cycle faster i think. I kept it in the low 90s.

0morrokh

That's a really good idea. My tanks were always around 80 for cycling, I guess I didn't think to see how high my heater went.

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, higher temp=faster cycling.

COBettaCouple

yea, the heat helps.. and when we were in florida, we took advantage of the consistent summer heat by putting the tanks on the covered back porch to cycle.. we didn't even need a heater really during the summer.. lol. Here in Denver, we just cranked a heater to max and it got about 90'ish but not as warm as the florida summer got a tank.

lyndatu

Thanks again to you all for the helpful info. I think I'm going for ammonia, but we'll still go to the expert pet shop on a far away city to get one, but it's no problem; we really need to go there twice a month for school stuff. Just some questions:

Ammonia: Solid, Liquid or Gas? Is it expensive? How much will I put during the cycle? Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!

jsalemi

Ammonia is a liquid; usually sold in quart/liter plastic bottles. Be sure to get the industrial type (usually sold at hardware stores) as it's purer than the stuff the supermarkets sell, and doesn't have additives. Shouldn't be too expensive -- a couple of dollars per bottle, and you'll only need one.

I think I saw someone here say about 5 drops per 10g, so I guess that would be about 1ml per 10g roughly. I'm sure I'll be corrected if my memory is faulty.