# Cycle



## Dman (May 1, 2012)

How long do you usually let your tank run for befor putting fish in? Does anyone else just set it up and leave it for a while just to age the water? Whats the best stuff to jump start a new tank?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Most of the products that are advertised to cycle your aquarium do not really work, so I see no need to use them.

Regular ammonia will cause nitrifying bacteria to accumulate. Alternatively, if you plant your aquarium heavily from the start, you could have a "silent cycle".


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

I agree IMO most of ba products are gimmicks, I find aging a tank with plants and guppies is the best way


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## Nomo (Jan 21, 2012)

Most place will tell you that it will need at lease 1-2 week and longer the better for a tank to cycle. Just place a small amount of flakes or wafflers in there a day or 2 and keep checking the levels of the water perimeter. I did my first tank with plants and the runner snails that came with it. Waited for 2 weeks before I started adding anything else.


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## vrodolfo (Apr 7, 2011)

Use ammonium chloride...ebay's got it, 5-7 bones for a pound which is enough to cycle 500 tanks. Using that you can seriously control the ammonia dosage and be very accurate.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

vrodolfo said:


> Use ammonium chloride...ebay's got it, 5-7 bones for a pound which is enough to cycle 500 tanks. Using that you can seriously control the ammonia dosage and be very accurate.
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk


 Ya I've heard about using this, but I can't bring myself to buying that much n storing it, does using a bit of pond water help speed it up?


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

See if you can find someone with a filter that needs cleaning and get the 'rinsings' out of it, pour into your tank and it should cycle quite quickly. Needs to be a nicely aged filter, of course, but it works a treat.


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## vrodolfo (Apr 7, 2011)

I would not suggest using pond water...who knows what you'll find in there.

I agree with some of the other posts, nothing beats tossing in a used filter sponge (or two) from an established aquarium to speed the cycle. All other hocus pocus is not recommended. I suggest the ammonium chloride as a pure source of ammonia to dose (a.k.a "spike") the tank during the cycle (it can be done very precisely as well). Start off @ 3 ppm and once that cycles completely...go to 4 ppm and then 5ppm if you are looking to overstock the tank.

Regards...



Dman said:


> Ya I've heard about using this, but I can't bring myself to buying that much n storing it, does using a bit of pond water help speed it up?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Dman said:


> I agree IMO most of ba products are gimmicks, I find aging a tank with plants and guppies is the best way


No it's not. I think you should read up on how the nitrogen cycle works.


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

If you have an existing tank just toss 3/4 of volume of water needed from old tank and top up with freshwater and you have an instant cycle! Add a bit of Microbe Lift and you're golden. Only time I have ever needed to do a real cycle is on my 1st start up. I just get a bunch of cheap fish and have them live there for a week.
,Regarding products Microbe Lift is great, it's no gimmick.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

RevoBuda said:


> If you have an existing tank just* toss 3/4 of volume of water *needed from old tank and top up with freshwater and you have an instant cycle!


Unfortunately, this does not work, as only a minimal number of bacteria live freely in the water column.

The majority are in the filter media and substrate.


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

That's why you add the microbe lift to give the bacteria the ability to propagate quickly. It does work. I've been doing it for 20 years...


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

Only thing IDE be worried it wouldn't be a instant cycle is that the brown netlea soil I'm using is new n I think you also have to get the gravel cycling almost aswell, I think a combo of everything would do it,

I added half fresh water
Half cycled water, and threw a couple media filters in the new filter to help with other bacteria.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

RevoBuda said:


> That's why you add the microbe lift to give the bacteria the ability to propagate quickly. It does work. I've been doing it for 20 years...


Took a quick look at the Microbe Lift homepage...there are a lot of questions that it raised.

Unfortunately, just because something has been done for a long time doesn't mean it is correct...


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

Hey Darkblade, it goes both ways bud... I've never had problems with it. At the end of the day, it works. You may not agree with it, but I may not agree with things you do either. That's why each of us has a brain and each of us has the ability to try different things.

If I'm telling you it works for me, and I know plenty of people who have used the same routine without a problem, why is there an issue?

Unfortunately only one of us is mature enough to admit that there are more than one way of doing things in life. 

I accept that there are different methods to cycle. Unfortunately sometimes people may be caught in a pinch and be forced to take a short cut and this is an easy method to do so.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Well, as a microbiologist, I always take everything with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to "bacteria in a bottle" type products.

I'm sure you (and many other people) have had great experiences with it; I just do not believe there is sufficient (peer-reviewed) scientific evidence to warrant using these products. However, if there is sufficient evidence, then I wouldn't be hesitant to switch. After all, that's how science proceeds


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

I can respect that.


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## Mlevi (Jan 28, 2012)

Hello folks,

Just thought I'd share my meager experiences with cycling. I went through the fishless cycle using 'old country' brand ammonia (available at home hardware). 

My 10 gallon performed 'as expected', as in, the spikes happened when they were supposed to happen, and ebbed when they were supposed to. My 15 gallon, which i was cycling at the same time, did not produce the desired results. The numbers were all over the place, like a series of mini cycles. 

After a month, my patience wore off and I added 'seachem stability' (I had tried other bacteria in a bottle products previously and they never seemed to work for me). Seachem Stability did the trick though. There was one spike, and then the tank behaved like a cycled tank. I kept on dosing ammonia for another week or two atleast before introducing fish, and the readings were as expected from a cycled tank ie the ammonia readings went to 0 within 12-24 hours, and nitrite stayed at 0ppm, with nitrates progressively increasing.

Not saying it will work for everyone, and I haven't tried it since (I cycle with filter media from those 2 first tanks now), but just wanted to share my experiences with cycling and 'bacteria in a bottle' products.


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