Fishless cycle w/food

Started my very 1st tank by adding live plants & 2 pinches of food a day since 6/3. Fertilizer tablets on 6/6. No water changes or new water. No cleaning of anything. Yellowish water, evaporation and pulls for tests brought down 2" from top. Lots of food sitting on gravel.

Ammonia is at .50ppm, nitrites at .25ppm(I might be imagining), nitrates 0. All measurements 0 to start.

Questions- is this the right speed of ammonia buildup or should I get pure ammonia or safe start or TSS?
Can I add water as long as I add dechlorinator for the whole tank? I keep lowering my heater further into the tank.

What if I bought nitrifying bacteria?

Will I kill bacteria if I vacuum the gravel to pick up the food?

When the nitrites rise and ammonia drops, can I do a water change and add fish? Can fish go in when food is rotting at the bottom? Do I clean the filter before or after I add fish?

BTW I'm planning to just add a few hardy fish, then will wait at least a week to add more.

So many questions. I searched first, but did not see an answer for the rotting food part. Thanks!!!


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Started added live plants & 2 pinches of food a day 6/3. Fertilizer tablets on 6/6. No water changes or new water. No cleaning of anything. Yellowish water, evaporation and pulls for tests brought down 2" from top. Lots of food sitting on gravel.

Ammonia is at .50ppm, nitrites at .25ppm(I might be imagining), nitrates 0. All measurements 0 to start.

Questions- is this the right speed of ammonia buildup or should I get pure ammonia or safe start or TSS?
Can I add water as long as I add dechlorinator for the whole tank? I keep lowering my heater further into the tank.

It will take around 4-6 weeks to cycle. All tanks cycle at different speeds. My 30 took about a month and a week or so. Just keep testing until you get 0 nitrites and 0 ammonia and some nitrates.

What if I bought nitrifying bacteria?

Unless you have a real need to have fish immediately, just keep doing what you're doing.


Will I kill bacteria if I vacuum the gravel to pick up the food?

You will be removing the ammonia source if you do this.


When the nitrites rise and ammonia drops, can I do a water change and add fish? Can fish go in when food is rotting at the bottom? Do I clean the filter before or after I add fish?

You need ammonia and nitrites to be at 0 with some nitrates before adding fish. You're going to do a large water change(with gravel vac) before you add fish and if your filter media is nasty, clean it off in the water you take from your tank. Don't use tap water, only ever old tank water.


BTW I'm planning to just add a few hardy fish, then will wait at least a week to add more.

So many questions. I searched first, but did not see an answer for the rotting food part. Thanks!!!


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PupukahI I holomua.

Answers in red in the quote.

 

Thanks! Still wondering if I can add 2" of water at this point.


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

You can, but it's not necessary unless it's threatening to drop below your filter's intake. Just make sure you treat the water you add with Seachem Prime or some other water conditioner. The chlorine/chloramine in most municipal water will kill any bacteria that's colonized so far.

 

Questions- is this the right speed of ammonia buildup or should I get pure ammonia or safe start or TSS?
Can I add water as long as I add dechlorinator for the whole tank? I keep lowering my heater further into the tank.
TSS is just an abriviation for Tetra SafeStart. You could try using SafeStart but at this point I think it would be too much work. You would need to vac out all the left over food and change all the water, Then refill the tank with dechlorinated water, wait 24 hours then add the Safestart and some fish at the same time. but your probably at the half way point in your cycle, so just a bit more patience and you'll be there

What if I bought nitrifying bacteria?
Other than SafeStart, most bacterias do not contain a self-sustaining form of the bacteria that converts ammonia & nitrites and the bacteria will die off after a week or so (that is why the directions on the bottle instruct you to add more with every weekly water change. But while it is alive, it is busy starving out the naturally occuring, self-sustaining bacteria you really want.

Will I kill bacteria if I vacuum the gravel to pick up the food?
As mentioned already the decomposing fish food is providing the ammonia you need to feed the bacteria. Removing the food would leave you with no ammonia, therefore starving your bacteria

When the nitrites rise and ammonia drops, can I do a water change and add fish? Can fish go in when food is rotting at the bottom? Do I clean the filter before or after I add fish?
Once your ammonia level drops to zero, your nitrites will start to rise until the second bacteria that converts nitrites into nitrates grows enough to zero out your nitrite level. After your ammonia level drops to zero be sure to keep feeding the tank until the nitrites drop to zero. If you stop feeding the tank, the bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrites will starve off, and nitrite production will stop, leaving no food source to feed the nitrite converting bacteria. Do do a water change, since it will remove the ammonia/nitrite from the water, starving the bacteria.

Also as mentioned, once the tank cycles you will be doing a hugh water change/gravel vacuuming, so your tank will get cleaned up then. Right after that water change/gravel vac, you want to add some fish because they will then start suppling the ammonia to feed the bacteria and keep your cycle alive

BTW I'm planning to just add a few hardy fish, then will wait at least a week to add more.
I would recommend waiting 14 days before adding additional fish. Stock slowly. You will only have enough bacteria to handle the amount of ammonia that was produced during cycling. If you add to many fish at once (or if you do not wait long enough between fish additions, you can overwhelm the bacteria with more ammonia than there is bacteria to process it, leading to an ammonia spike.
So many questions. I searched first, but did not see an answer for the rotting food part. Thanks!!!

Welcome to FishLore!

Answers in this color

BTW, you can top off your tank with water. You only need to dechlorinate the new water, not the entire volume of the tank, since that water has already been dechlorinated.

 

Okay, I will add water if I need to, and only if I add the correct amount of dechlorinator.

Observation: in the last two days the water cleared up some. Clearer. Theory: the carbon filter is getting through the cloud created when I added the fertilizer pellets into the gravel for the live plants.


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Ammonia was at .50ppm, now down to .15 or so. Nitrites were a pinkish magenta instead of the straight purple range. I think it was 2 ppm. The nitrate was 2.5ppm. Is the tank starting to cycle? Keep adding the same amount of food? 2 pinches twice a day?


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

It sounds like you are on your way.

 

Now I'm thinking about fish selection. Any tank stocking schemes in this forum?

I want a community tank, and love blue gouramis and Cory cats. I like angelfish and cichlids but I hear they are not good for beginners.


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Ammonia was at .50ppm, now down to .15 or so. Nitrites were a pinkish magenta instead of the straight purple range. I think it was 2 ppm. The nitrate was 2.5ppm.

Today the ammonia is at 0, the nitrites are the same color at 2ppm, and the nitrates are at 8ppm.

Do I keep adding food until the nitrites drop? I haven't been cleaning anything nor changing water. However, 2 days ago I added 2" of water (added the dechlorinator directly to the tank afterwards).

Can I get a fish or school of fish yet?


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Keep adding food. You need an ammonia source or your cycle will stall. I wouldn't get fish yet unless you feel like doing daily water changes. When the nitrites hit 0 and the ammonia is at 0, then you can get fish.

 

Welcome to Fishlore.

Definitely wait for your tank to finish cycling. You are very close!

Keep adding the flakes to have a constant ammonia source.

Once you have no measurable ammonia or nitrite do a water change with a gravel cleaner to lift all the rotting debris. Then add a fish or two. Go slow and let the bacteria colonies become stronger and stabilize between the additions of new fish.

 

I'll keep waiting, even though it's difficult, lol!

I'm not used to any changes, so I'd prefer weekly over daily changes. And vacuuming up the debris would beautify the tank, that's for sure.

When adding one or two fish, I still want to add swordtail fish 1st. I'll eventually have 3 female and 1 male. Can I get 2 females then add the next female and only make next?


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Yeah, cycling is frustrating when all you want to be able to do is sit down and watch fish swim in the tank. I was right where you are not too long ago.

 

Hi, I have moved this thread to the Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle forum

 

My ammonia is 0.
Nitrites same color, around 2ppm.

Nitrates went up, around 10ppm.

Just keep adding food and no water changes?


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Correct. Until you have 0ppm ammonia & 0ppm nitrites just keep feeding the tank and no water changes.

 

Ammonia and nitrites down to zero, and will get fish in 3 days.

Do I do the major water change and gravel vacuum the day before?


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PupukahI I holomua.

 

Yes, I would wait to do the water change so that the rotting food can continue to feed the bacteria.

Congratulations on completing the cycle!!!