Give us your cycling advice

"I have had to advise a number of people that tap water contains disinfectants that they need to remove if they are going to use it to keep fish in. This does not appear to be well known particularly by those who "just" have a goldfish.

Not a cycling tip as such but an absolute pre-requisite to it."

"The biggest and I think most important bit of advice is:

Cycling a filter can take time. Once the nitrate has shot up it will take time for the filter to catch up, no matter how many waterchanges. SO BE PATIENT! I see so many people going back to the shop a week later worried and stressed as they have a "huge problem". Be patient - good things come to those who wait!

Oh and of course, once cycled add few fish and feed sparingly!"

"unfortunately there is no qiuck way to cycle a new tank, one has to allow nature to do its own thing. but by testing the water on a daily basis where you will see the nitrates dramatically increase and then decrease along with ph levels over a period of a couple of weeks. once the water levels are stable then you can start adding a couple of cheap fish. one other way to speed up cycling is to try and aquire some mature water and/or the contents from a mature filter from either your local aquarium dealer or a fellow aquarist and add it to your tank. hope that was of some help."

"One of the biggest issues that people seems to come up against is sourcing some ammonia for fishless cycling. Most supermarkets in fact don't carry household ammonia it seems, so a list of places that do would be very helpful, plus a dosing calculator. Homebase is one well known stockist of the stuff, though I know there have been problems with certain batches, so there is the foam test to consider too. I also got hold of a bunch of 1ml syringes graduated to 0.1ml off EBay for both dosing ammonia and also any treatments and fertilisers etc, very useful! The consensus seems to be to aim for dosing at around 4 or 5ppm ammonia with an aim of being able to get levels of both ammonia and nitrite back down to zero within 48 hours. Products like Tetra SafeStart are a great boon to rapid filter maturation. Of course, before you even get into cycling, filter selection is of critical importance, and going for one with as large a surface area as possible is the thing. So it'd be great to be able to list popular filters by approximate surface area as well as throughput (but granted may take time to research and compile)."

"Ensure the water is de-chlorinated.
Use house-hold ammonia or even a pinch of flake food (seen as easier to a beginner) to increase ammonia levels. 10% water change at the end of each week to stop levels getting ridiculous and overly disproportionate to bacteria. Continue to add ammonia and perform the 10% water change a week until ammonia and nitrite readings are 0 after 24hours of being added.
Fishless cycles should be done in the dark to avoid algae issues.
Any new water to the tank should be de-chlorinated.
Obtaining a mature sponge from a fellow aquarist will speed things up a great deal."

"Going to cycle my new this week sometime, bought Biomature which has the Ammonia and bacterial nutriants in the same bottle, has anyone used used this product before."

"The best and quickest way to cycle a tank is to use a bacteria bottle like Cycle (new version), Stability or SafeStart and dosage daily with Prime or AmQuel+ to render ammonia and nitrite non-toxic for the first week (this also prevents overfeeding causing ammonia spikes).

Using this modern hi-tech method allows people to set up a tank in a couple of hours with no harm to the fish and the tank is fully cycled within 3 days.

Beginners often makes basic mistakes and this method prevents most of them killing their pets.

Why not use modern technology?

It's not the 1970s people... :-)

"

"well as we all know there is no way of instantly starting a tank but the way i did my 200l was put dechlorinator in and then a full bottle of bacteria was added and i then switched everything on and put 2 dead prawns in the tank. (frozen)
it took a week for my tank to read low on everything"

"i moved my shrimp and fish from my 65 litre to my 125 litre new tank in 3 days without any deaths. First day i filled my new tank all set up running and everything, I removed 10 per cent of my water from the old into the new , I rinsed the new filter media in the old tank and poured a capful of cycling fluid on it. I placed double the dose of cycling fluid into the new tank as it said you could not overdose. I placed half of the sand from the old tank into the new, hoping to introduce further bacteria.I ran it like that without fish until the second night then I placed my hardiest fish in the tank, a molly. I checked in the morning the fish was happy so I introduced some more fish waited a few hours.They were fine so I added my shrimp all the remaining water and some more cycling fluid.I did regular weekly small changes for a few weeks adding cycling fluid each time and bought a testing kit to keep an eye on levels.I know a lot of fish stores will test the water for free.This may seem a faf but it worked for me.I know if starting from scratch you should run the tank for about a week without fish using some food to begin the cycle and then add a hardy fish like danios first. I have found cycling fluid speeds up the process and I never got cloudy water once."

"Stuart Haliday no tank can be cycled in three days, for bacteria to survive they need food (in the form of ammonia + nitrITE) and oxygenated water. Products like cycle contain neither of these and so their claims are false. Some claim to help boost friendly bacteria, it shouldnt be needed if you are adding ammonia, this will boost the ammonia more than any magic potion. Cycling does take time but its more than worth it in that you avoid so much uneccessary suffering and possibly deaths. My tips:

1) Use a large fistful of fish food to start the cycle of but place it in a pair of tights so that it does not foul the water then you can remove when ammonia reaches 4ppm (topped up to 2ppm when the ammonia is broken down overnight) Even better however use household ammonia as it does not contain unwanted extras such as phosphates which may promote algae growth.

2) Get a decent liquid test kit like API freshwater masterkit, dip strips do not give ammonia readings or accurate readings for the other parameters and knowing your water parameters is essential for a good cycle and good fishkeeping.

3) Put your daily readings into a graph which makes it alot easier to see the progression of your cycle and roughly how far through you are.

4) Carry out a water change if your ph diverts rapidly from your norm, especially if you have a low kH as this will halt the cycle. Also do a couple of 30-50% water changes before you get your fish to get nitrATEs down to a suitable level. Suitable is <40ppm or preferably <20ppm. A water change should then be carried out weekly alongside cleaning the substrate with a good gravel hoover.

Hope this helps and stay away from the potions!

Jason."

"I have been keeping marine and tropical fish for over twenty years and the best advice is to have patience, cross-reference literature from the internet and keep it simple when starting out.

The concept of cycling an aquarium is to ensure that bacteria in the filtration system can convert ammonia and nitrite waste products (ie fish poo) into less toxic nitrate. Small levels of nitrite and ammonia will kill your fish. So will nitrate if the levels are too high.

Test kits are required to monitor the levels and anything below 40 parts per million (ppm) for nitrate is acceptable for most hardy community freshwater tropical fish sold in the UK. Anything less than 20ppm and your fish will thrive and may even breed. The important thing to remember is that the cycle is a critical part of becoming a successful fish keeper. However, it is only one part of the process and long-term success depends on a number of factors:

1) Locate a reliable and reputable supplier for your fish. Discuss your plans with the staff and visit the shop at least twice before making an initial purchase

2) Buy one good book to start your research and cross-reference what you read on the internet

3) Realise that bigger tanks and lighter stocking levels will result in healthier fish

4) Not all fish go well together – research, research, research

5) Decide on how you want to landscape your aquarium and accept that you will want to change it

6) Your choice of filtration and substrate will have an impact on how you carry out water changes and whether you want to attempt to grow live plants

7) Regular water changes are the key to maintaining successfully a healthy aquarium – think at least 20% each week. I have a 480 litre tropical tank and do 25% water changes once a week. If you only want to change a bucket of water at a time you are automatically restricting your tank size

8) Tap water requires conditioning to remove chlorine and chloramines (check the link from the PFK website for the local water suppliers). This is only a minimum requirement because unless you are planning on using RO-Water most tap water also contains nitrates and phosphates that will cause problems wilth algae growth

9) Buy a nitrate test kit and be prepared to test the aquarium water once a week. When choosing your test kit be aware that liquid test kits provide accurate readings in increments of 5ppm but deteriorate quite quickly. Tablet test kits last longer but may only give readings in increments of 10ppm. Test strips give an indication of readings but can be unreliable. Starting out tablets might be less complicated to use and your local fish supplier might even test the water for you (the good ones invest in the long term relationships and hence repeat business)

10) The hardness of your water will influence what fish and plants you can successfully keep. Resist the temptation to use chemicals to alter the water hardness. It is better to find fish that will thrive in the water that comes out the tap (remember – keep it simple). One of the benefits of hard water is that it is stable (your research will tell you more)

11) Look to reduce the nitrate levels of your tap water – a simple canister filled with nitrate absorbing resin will set you back less that £20.00 and will last years – your fish will thank you. If you are using RO Water be prepared to mix it with tap water or start adding chemicals (remember – keep it simple).


Follow these simple steps to ensure a successful cycle to establish your aquarium:

1) Set up the aquarium according to the manufacturer’s instructions and fill with water. It is largely irrelevant for the purpose of cycling as to whether you are using an internal, external or under-gravel filter system as the principles of cycling remain the same.

2) Test your tap water for nitrate – there is no point going through the cycle process for six weeks if your tap water has nitrate readings of 50ppm – remember you are aiming for less than 20ppm for most tropical fish and lower with sensitive specimens (eg: Discus)

3) Add one small pinch of fish food to the water twice a day for four weeks and start testing the water for ammonia every couple of days. When the ammonia levels drop to zero start testing for nitrite.

4) Add two hardy fish (eg: platys) and feed sparingly twice a day for a further two weeks the nitrites should read zero and the nitrates should be registering (bear in mind my comments about tap water nitrate content)

5) Start you weekly water change regime and start to add more fish no more than six at a time depending on the size of your tank and the fish

6) Monitor the nitrate levels once a week before and after the water changes. It is a good idea to record the readings (I use an Excel Spreadsheet) although the aim is to maintain low nitrate levels after the initial cycling process is completed so you would hope to end up with a boring straight line for a graph!
"

"The best advice comes from the last reader and the one before posted by Jason.
Patients is whats needed.
TonyH"

"Rule number 1 - Patience is a virtue

I've just cycled a 4ft 220l tank for mbunas, I gave it every help I could, dosed with Safestart and the yucky brown contents of my other 4ft tank
Dosed up at about 3ppm ammonia for a few days (Homebase household ammonia), then up to 4, once that was cycled I dosed up to 5ppm and got a nitrite spike the next day so I waited a bit more before adding fish.
Didn't think about fish until I could dose to 5ppm ammonia and read 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite 24 hours after.
A few good sized water changes to bring the nitrate down and Robert is your fathers brother :)

Quite often your LFS will give you a squeeze of their filter foam if you ask too, that's a great way of getting bacteria to help your filter along.

"

"Erm.. I changed my 121g 5ft marine tank back to tropicals and after cleaning, replacing & washing the various filter media, filled with treated tap water and numerous plants ready to add a couple of hardy fish to start the cycle.. After visiting a lfs (2 days after filling the tank) I came home with 40ish neons which I intended to keep in large net breeding traps in my 6ft community tank til the 5fter was ready. In my stupidity( I put it down to age and having 2 young children) I ended up releasing them in the 5ft tank after an acclimatisation process by msitake.. I monitered the water closely and it hardly changed and all the neons stayed alive. This was a few months ago now and its now got lots of breeding guppies and cherry shrimp in there with some young b/n plecs and other small fish. My apple snails are breeding well too. I know this was what could have been a big mistake but luckily for me it wasnt and the fish were all fine. I think the size of the tank was the main factor in keeping the fish healthy and any ammonia and nitrite spikes werent too bad."

"My advice would be to cultivate healthy plant grow prior to adding any livestock. Once you notice fresh leaves, add some flake or other fertilising agent in small quantities. Then, when strong vegetative grow is underway, add some shrimp or other small, detritus-eating livestock. Only once they are established, and you are seeing continuous strong plant growth, should you gradually add small, hardy fish species.


"

"Don't believe everything you read on the bottle. Bottles that "have *all* the bacteria you need to cycle your tank" are, quite frankly, talking rot. Bacteria need specific conditions to stay alive and thrive. The shelf in your lfs is not an ideal culturing temperature :D be patient and do it properly. A bottle of ammonia is cheaper anyway!!!
Tanks can not be set up in a couple of hours and detoxifying nitrates and ammonia will not actually cycle your tank!
A month or so of patient waiting will stop months of unnecessary, expensive problems and unnecessarily sick and stressed fish."

"Bacteria are not as delicate as you all seem to believe. Just because they are not growing does not mean they are dead, they are just in stasis. At work I can take attenuated bacteria form a -80 freezer and grow a new colony from them. Bacteria may need specific conditions to thrive but not to survive and be poised to take advantage of those conditions when they are presented.

The only things I trust to kill bacteria are autoclaves and some industrial strength disinfectants.

I managed to cycle my tank in three days using a combination of established media, bottled bacteria, stem plants and fish food. I didn't believe it myself so kept testing with my API kit to notice no deviation from zero ammonia and nitrites, even after the addition of fish. My nitrate gradually increased. So it can be done."

"The best way I have found Fishless cycle using pure ammonia as someone mentioned above - monitoring it daily. I could go really in depth but I did charts and readings and have done it this way twice now - its better than any product you can buy off the shelf. I have kept all my details about how to start the fishless cycle e,g how many drops a day etc - so if anyone wants to see them let me know - or PFK may like to get them off me and put it into a user friendly version to put on here."

"I recently set up a new marine tank of 180Litres. I am fortunate enough to have other mature tanks, which I used part of for the new one. I used the old water from a water change for 50% of the water and I have a filter pad in the sump of my large marine tank and I put some of it into an external filter that I attached to the new tank. I added some live coral sand and the new tank had live rock which had been in the coral display tank of the shop when I bought it. I added river shrimp immediately and tested the water every day for a week. It did not cycle so I continued testing for another week. Still every thing reading zero, so I added the fish and 8 weeks later still no problems. It apeared to cycle straight away, but I would always wait until I had good readings for two weeks. If you have a friend with a tank and they give you the water from a water change it does speed up the recycling. "

"A lot of you have beaten me to the punch, but what I wanted to say is:

Have patience!"

"Firstly, make sure that tap water is properly dechlorinated by using a product such as aqua plus or tapsafe. Without getting too technical, chlorine (and also chloramine) is a disinfectant used by water companies to rid the water of bacteria, some of which we as aquarists rely upon to colonise filter media. These bacteria break down ammonia into nitrites and then nitrites into less harmful nitrates. Use a bacteria supplement such as cycle. This will aid in speeding up the cycling process but that said, it is just an aid and not a replacement for the two most important factors in cycling. Time and patience!! Invest in a quality water testing kit. When ammonia and nitrite reading are down zero it's time to add the first fish. Remember when stocking, a few fish at a time. Build up stocks gradually to avoid an overload on the newly established filter. To recap, dechlorinate, spend a few quid extra on a decent water testing kit and above all be patient. These are live animals that we're keeping and should always be given the care and attention that they require and deserve. Look after the water and the fish will look after themselves. Well, almost anyway! Keep it simple and enjoy your aquarium."

"I have cycled a new tank in one day, frequently. To fully explain how, I'll begin with the basics.

Fish constantly produce ammonia through respiration. Ammonia is also produced from urine and through decomposition of solid waste, plant and animal matter. Ammonia is highly toxic to all fish, and it is present from the first moment a fish is placed in a new aquarium. There are two ways, and only two ways, to effectively remove this ammonia: bacteria and plants. First the bacteria.

When ammonia is present, a bacteria called nitrosomonas automatically appears (in nature and in our aquaria) to feed on the ammonia and thus convert it to nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic, though slightly less so, and a second bacteria appears to feed on the nitrite and convert it to nitrate. This second bacteria used to be thought to be nitrobacter, but a 1998 paper documented the findings of a group of scientists led by Dr. Timothy Hovanec who determined that nitrospira was the bacteria responsible; subsequent writings frequently mention both, as some believe both have a part to play. Whichever it is, the toxic nitrite converts to nitrate which at reasonable levels is non-toxic to fish. Nitrate is easy to handle, as it can be removed (diluted) with partial water changes; in a heavily-planted aquarium it is almost non-existant as I'll come to momentarily.

The process above is termed the nitrification cycle, and aquarists use the term "cycle" referring to this three-stage process. It takes time to establish the afore-mentioned bacteria. Nitrosomonas bacteria appear within 5 to 9 days after ammonia is present, and nitrobacter in 10 to 15 days after nitrite is present. It also takes time for these bacteria to multiply. They do this by binary division, which means each bacterium divides into two new bacteria. In optimum conditions (temperature around 77F, pH in mid 7's) nitrosomonas will divide every 7 hours and nitrobacter every 13 hours. This occurs constantly provided there is available "food" in the form of ammonia and nitrite respectively; once the bacteria are in sufficient numbers to process the available ammonia and nitrite, they cease to multiply. The tank is said to be "established" at this point; this means that the nitrogen cycle is in balance for the bioload present at that time in the aquarium. If the ammonia or nitrite should decrease, the bacteria will die off accordingly. There is consequently always sufficient bacteria present to handle the nitrification--provided something does not occur to affect this process.

Fishless cycling takes time because the above nitrification cycle takes time to establish itself. If sufficient bacteria is added with the first fish in a new tank, the nitrification cycle is immediate. The nitrosomonas bacteria consume the amonia produced by the fish and other processes, and the nitrospira/nitrobacter consume the resulting nitrite. The key is to have the bacteria in balance with the bioload. This can be done in two ways.

"Seeding" the new tank with bacteria from an established healthy aquarium is one way. Bacteria colonize surfaces, so any item such as substrate (gravel, sand), filter media, rock, wood, plants, and ornaments that are moved from an established aquarium to the new aquarium will bring bacteria with it (provided it is not washed or allowed to dry). There must be ammonia being produced in the new tank or the transferred bacteria will die off. Note that bacteria do not colonize water, only surfaces in the water. Moving water from an established tank is useless and in fact detrimental. No bacteria are transferred, but urine, dissolved waste, ammonia, and possibly pathogens and whatever else will be introduced into the new tank. And the fish in the new tank will supply enough ammonia and waste without adding more.

The second way to introduce the needed bacteria is through a biological supplement. Seachem now make one called "Stability" that is live bacteria. The same Dr. Hovanec mentioned previously developed a method for ensuring bacteria can be kept alive in a bottle, and there are now a few types available. Stability is one, and there is a frozen supplement available in the US called Bio-something; I'm not familiar with it because it cannot be imported into Canada where I live. There is also "Cycle" although this is not live bacteria, as I understand it, but it does work the same; I have used it. API have one called "Stress Zyme" and there are a few others.

Provided the bacteria is sufficient in numbers to handle the fish load, there will be absolutely no stress on the fish other than that related to being netted and placed in a new environment. And no fish loss. But again, it has to be balanced; the fewer the fish and the more bacteria, the better, so it is recommended to put few fish in at the start, and gradually add more. Of course, in an emergency this is not practical. Some years ago I had to tear down my 115g tank (with 140 fish in it) in one day and disinfect everything and use new filter media. I used "Cycle" and the fish went back in the same day to a completely new tank. Not one fish loss. And when I moved homes, the same.

Now to the plants. I mentioned above that nitrate is seldom a problem in a planted aquarium. In my own experience of 15+ years, I have always had nitrates at 5-10 ppm, and I have heavily-stocked aquaria. We often read that this is because plants use nitrates as food. However, it is now believed that the plants actually use ammonium, not nitrates, and in fact cannot use nitrates unless they change them back into ammonium. Ammonium comes from ammonia. In acidic water, the ammonia produced by the biological processes largely changes to ammonium. This is why in an aquarium with an acidic pH (below 7.0) there will basically never be poisioning from ammonia; it changes to ammonium, and ammonium is relatively harmless to fish. Test kits (most at any rate) read ammonia and ammonium the same, so testing the water and finding ammonia above 0 can be ammonia and/or ammonium depending upon the pH. This is still reliable, since the nitrification cycle described above uses ammonia and ammonium so it makes no difference which it is. However, the lower the pH, the less effective the bacteria function; some say that below pH of 6 the nitrification cycle is basically gone, which is a major reason why aquarists are advised to maintain a pH above 6. But that's another topic; back to the ammonium.

Plants require ammonium to photosynthesize, and in acidic water they apparently grab most of it before the bacteria has the chance. In basic (alkaline) water, ammonia remains ammonia, but the plants have the ability to change ammonia to ammonium themselves. Lest you think this is my idle speculation, it is clearly laid out in an excellent article by Diana Walstad ["Plants and biological filtration" on Aqua Botanica.com] from which the next info comes. She says, "Plants, algae and all photosynthesizing organisms use the nitrogen from ammonia--not nitrates--to produce their proteins." Ms. Walstad mentions that plants probably also use nitrite by changing it back into ammonium in order to make full use of the available food that they need to grow. The main point though is that planting an aquarium heavily at the beginning and then adding fish basically ensures that the fish will again experience no stress nor ill effects (poisioning) due to ammonia or nitrite. The plants consume it and use it. Ms. Walstad says that she has always set up new aquaria with plants and fish the first day and has never had an issue with ammonia or nitrite. She also suggests that there is no need for canister filters in a planted aquarium, only filtration sufficient to create a suitable current of water. The plants do the filtration, and the bacteria that colonize their leaves far outnumber the bacteria in any filter. Dr. Ted Coletti makes a similar point on filtration in his article in the July 2008 issue of TFH.

In conclusion, the best, easiest and safest way to establish a new aquarium is to plant it, add some fish, and add bacteria. The latter may be "overkill" with the plants, but it can't hurt the fish.
"

"For a complete novice to cycle/mature a tank they need a basic understanding of the Nitrogen Cycle which can best best demonstrated with a simple illustration of the conversion process from Ammonia through Nitrite and eventually to Nitrate.
There are two things needed to cycle a tank, Ammonia & Patience.
Ammonia can be sourced in many ways, Household Ammonia can be used as can Frozen Prawns, Chicken, Spam or Fish Food which will all decompose producing Ammonia.
My preferred method, and I believe the simplest, is to use Frozen Prawn & Fish Food. (This method is exactly the same if using a small piece of Chicken or Spam)
Set-up the tank & filter, then fill with dechlorinated water. Raise the temperature of the tank water to 28 degrees centigrade which will help to speed up the cycling process
Place one frozen prawn inside an old sock or stocking foot & add a little gravel to weight it down, suspend the prawn in flow of water at about half depth, making sure the prawn is fully immersed in the water as decomposing prawns have an unpleasant smell.
Add a pinch of flake food each day, which will also decompose producing Ammonia.
Monitor Ammonia levels on a daily basis, when Ammonia reaches 4ppm remove the Prawn and dispose of it. Continue to "feed" the tank daily with flake food & continue testing daily for Ammonia & also NitrITE. When Ammonia & NitrITE both test at Zero the tank is cycled.
To be absolutely sure the tank is cycled continue to "feed" the tank for a further 3 days testing daily for Ammonia, NitrITE & also NitrATE, Ammonia & NitrITE should continue to test at Zero, but it is likely there will be elevated NitrATE.
Once sure there is no detectable Ammonia or NitrITE a thorough gravel vacuum & a large water change, as much as 90%, to remove accumulated fish food & NitrATE will ensure the tank is safe for your first fish.
"

"Why 'o' why cant shops keep at least two filters in each shop tank and run them until they are charged with bacteria this would make life so much easier for the beginner. I do this with all my tanks then if i want to set up a new tank i just have to add a live filter no problems no nitrite no ammonia ,if a friend is starting to keep fish ill tell them to get there filter first and ill mature it for them surely this would be a great service for shops to provide even at a small cost to the beginner they would be less likely to have a new tank disaster!! and will then remain in the hobby and not put off at the first atempt "

"i have fishless cycled almost all my tanks for the past 18yrs in this method.

i use aquatic soil (the kind used for pond plants) to supply the ammonia for the cycle. this soil leaches ammonia for 2-4 weeks & so is an ideal source of food to supply the bacteria in the filter.

i place some in an old pair of nylons & dropped it in the tank then removed when the nitRITE level has dropped to 0 & nitRATES are on there way up.

never had any problems with this method. the other method ive used is buy a tin of fish food & tip it into a 2lt bottle of water, this give you the ammonia source to add to the tank daily to cycle a filter.

never used one of the of the shelf products to cycle in 18yrs & see no need to change now"

"Just started with tropicals, as a novice i would like to thank all who posted advice on cycling a new tank, found them all so helpfull. What a great idea from G A Mcleod"

"Hey let me first start off by saying this is a great website to learn from when i first bought my six pairs of fancy gupies i lost all but two i had to get the water right and she became pregant when i first got them but now i have everything under control and she gave birth to sixteen baby fry today and i soon hope to update you all on there health color six and all very soon on they with some pictures!!!"

"I run a fish-house and have many tanks some of which are not on my centralised system and therefore have to be cycled independently. As a novice, I cycled my first tank with "fish-in" - using Danios and Platys - big mistake, I didnt fully understand the Nitrogen Cycle and the poor fish had to suffer the first Ammonia spike as a result of their waste breaking down - several days later the resulting Nitrite spike put undue stress on the fish and I ended up with a bad Whitespot and fungus outbreak with several fish dying. Medicating a 377 Litre tank was expensive, plus having to purchase Carbon to scrub the meds from the tank afterwards almost led me giving up and to selling the whole £700 setup. I persevered and having purchased more fish to continue the cycling process then had to endure a bad bacterial bloom. Constant water changes and the eventual purchase of a decent liquid test kit finally got me through what turned out to be a 6 week cycle. The fish I had were now weakened and eventually died however thankfully the replacement stock have been fine - I had by this time understood the Nitrifying process and knew that I had to introduce fish slowly - no more than 5 a week to allow the filter bacteria to catch up with the increased waste matter.

As time went by and my fish keeping hobby expanded, more tanks were added and I decided to try the "fishless" cycle using Ammonia rather than the previous disasterous "fish-in" method. I purchased a bottle of Household Ammonia from Boots the Chemist for under £2, this is 8.5% Ammonia and has no detergent additives - very important.

Having purchased my external cannister filter, added all the necessary subtrate, rock, plants etc and topped up with dechlorinated water I started the process as follows:

1 - If possible try to "seed" the tank with some media from a previously cycled filter. Visit a friend who has a tank and clean their filter sponges into a bucket of tank water (NOT UNTREATED TAP WATER...this will kill the healthy bacteria). The resulting dirty water is perfect for your first "seeding". Pour the contents directly into your tank, it wont look pretty but this is irrelevant at this point.
The introduced live bacteria will be taken into your filter and will begin to collonise the sponges and media. Now you need to "feed" the bacteria.

2 - Add a few drops of Ammonia directly to the tank water. Wait 10 minutes for the Ammonia to mix well and test using your liquid test kit. You are looking to achieve an Ammonia reading of 5ppm (Parts Per Million).
You need not put the tank lights on at this point if you dont want to however it is useful to heat the tank to around 75-80 degrees F to help encourage the bacterial development.

3 - Test daily. Around the 3rd day you will see the Ammonia level begin to drop. This is because the bacteria you introduced initially have scrubbed the Ammonia from the water and have multiplied accordingly. When your reading reaches 0ppm Ammonia it is time to add another dosing to 5ppm.

4 - Test daily. You will see that after each dosing of Ammonia 5ppm will drop to 0ppm quicker and quicker.
From day 4 onwards you will additionally need to test for Nitrite. Nitrite is produced as a by-product of the waste matter from your initial Ammonia munching bacteria and is equally as toxic to your fish. Nature however comes to the rescue and a second type of bacteria start to colonise which feed on Nitrite.

5 - Test daily for Ammonia and Nitrite adding another dosing of Ammonia each time the level drops to 0ppm.
Around day 8 you will begin to see the Nitrite level start to drop as the Nitrite munching bacteria multiply. At this point you will see that the Ammonia is being scrubbed to 0ppm in around 24h. Nitrite is taking a little longer however by day 10 both Ammonia and Nitrite readings should be on 0ppm 24h after dosing with 5ppm of Ammonia.

6 - Continue to dose daily with 5ppm of Ammonia for 3 days to ensure stability. Conduct a 90%+ water change using heated, dechlorinated water and ADD FISH.

You have in effect created the conditions that would be expected from the bio-load (waste matter) from a fully populated tank of fish. This means you can safely introduce all your fish at once with the knowledge that the filters will be able to cope.

The end rusult of all this "cycling" is a build up of Nitrate. Not as toxic to your fish as Ammonia or Nitrite but still you need to keep levels below 50ppm if possible and to achieve this a 10-25% weekly water change is required. Live plants love Nitrate and will help to keep the levels in check. Should you choose to add your fish slowly over a period of time, it should be noted that the bacteria already established within your filter media will drop back to complement the bio-load from the number of fish added thus when adding more fish you need to do so in small numbers to allow the bacteria to increase accordingly. Adding too many fish at once after the bacteria have dropped back will induce a mini-cycle and you will need to keep a very close eye on Ammonia and Nitrite levels. If this happens, regular partial water changes will help to lessen the effects on your already established fish.

Hope this helps.

Bungy"

"When you buy the tank it should be mandetary that you buy one of the fish health books , you should then read it
Then buy the fish, perhaps then there wont be as many losses do to folks not knowing what they are doing. "

"Wonderful read through, loads of information from all you folks. Thank you so much. I'm just a beginer, I'm setting up my first fresh water planted aquarium over the weekend. Will give you updates in the blog with my experiences, thrills, surprises :-)."