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Step-by-Step Nitrogen Cycle Guide and Fishless Cycling

51K views 169 replies 47 participants last post by  Hallyx 
#1 ·
Woo, what a long time in the making. First of all, a huge WOOP to Sakura for.. well everything she does, and for not rushing me on this, because I took my sweet time. I'd also like to thank my dear friend Hallyx, for all his input and cycling knowledge. We'd be no where on BettaFish without these two sweeties around. :-DAdditional thanks goes to Chesherca, for going through my work as well, making sure everything actually made sense to someone other than myself.

Things you will need:
- A filter (Hang-on-back (HOB) and sponge are most popular with betta)
- An ammonia source (this could be pure ammonia, fish food, raw shrimp, or even your fish, depending on the method you choose)
- Plants (if you plan on doing the planted method)
- A small oral syringe (meaning without a needle!) is useful when using pure ammonia, usually a 5mL size is best. These can be found in pet stores in the dog/cat section, or in pharmacies in the baby section, as they are used to measure out dog/cat/baby medicines. Only needed for pure ammonia method.
-Tank (and possibly bucket for a bucket cycle), substrate, decorations, all of which provide surface area for your bacteria to grow.
-A test kit for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. An API Master Test Kit gives the best value over the long run, but strips can also work fine.

About the Nitrogen Cycle:
There is tons of info on this, but I want to sum this up as briefly as possible. The nitrogen cycle is when you "grow" bacteria in your tank, on your filter and everything else in the tank. Fish produce ammonia, which is bad for them, it damages their bodies, causing burns and death. The bacteria consume the ammonia, and produce nitrite. Now, nitrite isn't any better and can do just as much damage as ammonia, so another type of bacteria consumes it to make nitrates. Nitrates are the last step of the cycle, and are much less toxic, but still hurt in the long run, which is why it's important to do weekly water changes of 30-50% in a cycled aquarium.

First Thing's First- The Method:
There are five distinct methods for properly cycling your tank that we'll be looking at in this article. Any of these methods will achieve the end-result of a fully-cycled tank, but only you can decide which will work best for your situation. You can safely cycle a tank of any size using the techniques listed here. Some people prefer not to cycle smaller tanks, instead relying on more frequent water changes to keep the water clean. However, if you plan to keep a larger tank of five to ten gallons or more, it will be necessary to cycle the tank for the health and safety of the fish who will be living there.

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#62 ·
It's hard to stop from throwing them away when they are DISGUSTING. I mean, they are GREEN. But, you have to keep them in.
 
#63 ·
Question about this, I have had a tank for about a week, I am doing a cycle with the betta. I have been testing the water daily and changing it about every 3 days. The current levels read
Amonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
A few days ago the nitrate was at like 5, is it wierd for it to go that far down with the a 30% water change?
And the nitrite hasn't much gotten past 0, once I think it was 0.25.
 
#64 ·
A week is pretty early in the cycle. The ammonia numbers will rise much higher than 0.25 if you let it. Same goes for the nitrites. You should expect it to take 2-3 weeks for the ammonia to peak and fall, and then another 1-2 weeks after that for the nitrites to drop. The nitrates will rise steadily for there.
 
#67 ·
I Agree with Olympia. Cycling a tank can take up to 6-8 weeks so likely a false reading. If you are using the liquid testing kits make sure you shake the "heck" out of those bottles before and during. Some ingredients settle out and can harden on the bottom of the bottles. 2 minutes shaking is recommended.... and if memory serves me, I think it's the NitrAte test that is one of the tricky ones.
Remember to test your tap/well water to know what that reading is too. That way when you do water changes you know what you are adding. (my water reads .25 ammonia in it from the tap so I do smaller water changes cause I'm adding ammonia and I only use Prime. Probably why my fully planted tank does so well as plants take up ammonia). Having said that... Live plants help protect your fish from the Nitrogen Cycle even if just floating on the surface. Good luck!
 
#66 · (Edited)
I am going to post some info I have on the raw shrimp method, this method has been around for a long time and well It is not a real good practice, sure it will cycle your tank but their are many risks to it, if you think about it it does go against common sense, when a fish dies in our tanks we do not leave them in there for multiple reasons. fouls the water, bacteria growth and well you never really know what the fish died of and what you may be leaving in your tank to fester, I remember when this method was first being passed around in the 90's, but alas here is an article and info on it for all to read and decide for yourselves....http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html#rawshrimp
 
#69 ·
Moving decor will transfer bacteria, but moving water will not. The bacteria live on solid surfaces


Sent from Petguide.com App
 
#70 ·
Yes, Jaysee is correct. You can transfer the good bacteria from another tank as it only lives on all the surfaces, like tank walls, gravel, rocks, plastic/silk plants etc. Know the tank it is coming from... you can also get bad bacteria or disease from another tank. Make sure the item does not dry out or stay out of the tank for over 24 hours and do not rinse it in tap water with chlorine. Try to not let the water temp drop too drastically too. I would say that the "good bacteria" is rather delicate so do your transfer as stable as possible. (Like live fish, you don't have to match the temp... but don't leave it at 70 degrees while the new tank will be at 80. know what I mean?)

Any live plant you can add to your tank will help protect your fish. And the fish prefer the live plants over plastic too.
 
#72 ·
That's a lot of shrimp for a little water.

Honestly, if your tank is planted, you should be fine. Not to mention your pH is at 6-6.4.

This is a rough representation of the relationship to pH and ammonia/ammonium.
At your low pH, practically all the ammonia molecules will be present as ammonium, which is much less toxic.
As long as your pH is stable at those levels, you should be fine with just a small weekly water change in the tanks. :)
 
#80 · (Edited)
Thanks Olympia! I googled and came up with this really interesting thread-
http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aquarium-nitrogen-cycle/97638-good-bacteria-die-high-ammonia-levels.html

When I test my tap water, treated with conditioner and without, I get an ammonia reading of .50 ppm. I believe this is because our city's water is treated with chloramine instead of chlorine, but am not 100% on that.
I have one betta in a 10 gallon divided tank with a filter and plants alone, while it cycles and another in a 2 gallon tank without a filter.

10g tank-
pH= 7
ammonia= .50 ppm

2g tank-
pH=6.6
ammonia=.50 ppm


I treated the water in both tanks with Amquel, which is supposed to treat the ammonia and I added some Atison's betta spa to the small tank today which brought the ammonia down from 1 ppm to .50.
I did a 100% water change on the small tank Tuesday and have been changing out half the water roughly every other day (i did it yesterday). This has really been confusing for me because of the "ammonia" already found in my tap water.

Is it safe to assume that the ammonia in both my tanks is mostly ammonium at these pHs? And is the pH in the big tank high enough to allow BB to grow or should I try to get it higher?
 
#75 ·
Hi! Awesome guide, a lot of options I haven't read about before. I have a question. I'm currently cycling a 40gallon tank. I used to have it set up but I removed all my residents to revamp it all. I saved the bio wheel and filter cartridge and floated it in a bucket of old tank water, and it was like that for a few days. HOWEVER, there was no aeration or movement in the bucket--it just sat in there. Could my bacteria have died off? I had no other source of saved media, all the decor was scrubbed clean and it used to be bare bottom (I recently added sand). I set it up two days ago, and yesterday I had an ammonia reading of 1.5ppm. I currently have 2 fairly large aquatic salamanders in a sterilite bin quite unhappy waiting to be put home. I assumed that I would be able to "skip" most of the cycle time because of the saved filter media but I never knew it had to be aerated. Do you think I may be starting over with a cycle? Or if it is still okay, with no other source of ammonia in there except for a few plants, will my ammonia really SPIKE or will it only get a tad higher before dropping off? Also, would doing a 70-80% water change crash the cycle? I once did a large water change like that and my cycle crashed :(
 
#76 ·
Doing water changes will NEVER crash the cycle, no matter how large.

I have a canister filter that I let sit full of water and dirty media for several months. When I hooked it back up on a tank, it took less than 2 weeks to get "reanimated", converting ammonia to nitrate. If you kept it wet it ought to still be intact, aeration or not - give it a little more time and see what happens.
 
#78 ·
If there are no fish in the tank then it's not necessary. The only reason to do water changes while cycling with fish is to keep the fish alive. However, when doing a fishless cycle it is sometimes necessary to do A water change as the cycling process can sometimes stall out half way through. Doing a water change in that instance will almost always kick it back in gear for it to finish.
 
#81 ·
Sounds like you should do a fishless cycle. A fish in cycle is 100 times more time consuming with water changes and what not.
 
#82 · (Edited)
While that may be true, you really don't need the high level of nitrifying bacteria that a fishless cycle typically produces, if you're only stocking one Betta.

I must say, fidget, you have a very sophisticated understanding of the nitrogen cycle, as well as it's relationship to pH. Here's a chart that will answer your question of how much is free ammonia and how much id ammonium depending on pH and temperature, another slight consideration.

http://cnykoi.com/calculators/calcnh3c.asp

Both Amquel and Prime converts the chloramine into chlorine and ammonia. Then they deal with the chlorine somehow and ionize the ammonia into ammonium, as you know. Your 6.6pH tank has mostly ammonium and little free ammonia. The 7.0pH tank has a slightly higher percentage of free ammonia. See chart for exact numbers.

I don't think the chlorine conversion will produce 0.50ppm ammonia unless you have a LOT of chloramine in your tapwater.

I've been taught not to mess with pH. But dealing with the complexities of low pH, and the difficulties of cycling low pH water, is a question Olympia could answer better than I.

And thanks for that interesting and very informative link.
 
#85 ·
While that may be true, you really don't need the high level of nitrifying bacteria that a fishless cycle typically produces, if you're only stocking one Betta.
I agree - the tank needn't process 4 ppm of ammonia per day. Is it necessary to dose that high with ammonia?

I don't think the size of the colony is important when compared to the benefit of putting a fish in a cycled tank. Besides, it's no extra work to build a bigger colony to start. Too, that larger colony means a larger buffer to protect against newbie mistakes.

My $0.02 ;-)
 
#83 ·
Perfect, thank you!
I'm going to have both fish in the large divided tank, provided they like it.
I have a chemistry background (college droupout lol) hopefully that's helping me out. I really want to have a good understanding of what's going on in my tank as well as betta care. Those little guys have really charmed me!
I wouldn't try to up the pH with chemicals- just more partial water changes, if necessary.
 
#86 · (Edited)
CC, do a 50% water change to keep your nitrite below 0.25ppm. Watch your nitrate grow. You're on the way.

Yeah, jaysee, that about encapsulates the argument pro and con. Other than an overly large colony dying back and producing ammonia, there is no disadvantage to growing too big of a bacteria colony, as far as I know..

But I hate to see new keepers running a small unfiltered bowl for weeks while waiting for their wonderful, large display tank to cycle. I feel this is harder on the fish than living in a low-ammonia environment (<0.25ppm). The keeper has to do water changes anyway. Twice a week is not much harder than once, and it soon becomes once a week.

It also avoids the complexity and learning curve of a fishless cycle, although I'm all for learning as much as possible about the nitrogen cycle. Fish-in cycling for a single Betta is just too simple and convenient not to recommend.

You can have your $0.02 back. Contribute to the beaslbob build. ;-}
 
#87 ·
Yeah, jaysee, that about encapsulates the argument pro and con. Other than an overly large colony dying back and producing ammonia, there is no disadvantage to growing too big of a bacteria colony.

But I hate to see new keepers running a small unfiltered tank for weeks while waiting for their display tank to cycle. I feel this is harder on the stock fish than living in a low-ammonia environment (<0.25ppm). The keeper has to do water changes anyway. Twice a week is not much harder than once, and it soon becomes once a week.

It also avoids the complexity and learning curve of a fishless cycle, although I'm all for learning as much as possible about the nitrogen cycle.

Fish-in cycling for a single Betta is just too simple and convenient not to recommend.

You can have your $0.02 back. Contribute to the beaslbob build. ;-}
Well let's look at this logically - if the bacteria colony is dying back, then that means that they are starving to death. If they are dying of starvation, then the ammonia produced would certainly be consumed by the surviving, starving bacteria, no?

True that - when it's a matter of keeping a fish in a smaller uncycled tank versus a larger uncycled tank, the larger is unquestionably better.
 
#91 ·
OK, Rick. Do I get that too much ammonia kills or stalls the nitrogen cycle by using up all the O2? If a cycling tank is properly aerated (or planted), the ammonia oxidizing capacity is enhanced. I've had a tank merrily cycling away at >7.0ppm/day ammonia.

What ammonia oxidizing capacity would be required for, say, a 7-member Betta sorority in a 10g, or a school of 7 Cory or Tetra? Is 4.0ppm/day enough? Because that's what many think is the highest limit of a fishless cycle.
 
#92 ·
I'm not sure you could realistically reach this level in an aquarium.
It pretty an accepted doctrine that the nitrifying bacteria at work in an aquarium and the one at work in waste water treatment are not the same bacteria. At what level of ammonia do we begin to favor the growth unwanted nitrifying bacteria that compete directly with the bacteria we do want? Who knows.

R
 
#93 ·
I keep reading you don't need to do water changes on a fishless (with plants) cycle, but my ammonia seems so high I feel like I should. I have a 5.5 gal tank I'm working on cycling (I'm new to cycling so please excuse my ignorance) its been up and running for 4 days. I know there is supposed to be an ammonia spike, but the numbers seems so high for such a short amount of time...
pH-7.4 (which has gone down from the 8 straight out of the tap)
Ammonia-1-2(was between)
Nitrite- .25-.50(also between)
Nitrate 5
So my question is... should I change the water? Or do I just wait it out?
 
#94 · (Edited)
No need to change water in a fishless cycle unless the ammonia rises ovae 5.0ppm Same for nitrite. Don't worry about nitrate. What are you using as an ammonia source?

Actually there is no ammonia spike, exactly. The level of the ammonia is determined by the dose you put in (or generate with fishffood, etc.) When the ammonia decreases daily, even when you continue dosing, that's an indication that your cycle is going well. The nitrite will rise to a peak and then decline. This is as it should be.

Wonderful. You're one of those smart people that checks the stickies first. Welcome to the forum.
 
#95 ·
I haven't been using any fish food or anything as my ammonia source. I thought I read somewhere that pieces of the plants (roots that have broken off mostly) worked too? So I figured I would just rely on the fact I just planted it and little pieces of roots always come off. And they did, I have seen a few. Should I be adding food too?
Thanks for the welcome :) I really want to make sure I do it right :)
 
#96 ·
You do need an ammonia sourxe. Rotting plant roots will only go so far. Rotting fishfood or shrimp really smell which can take a long time for the smell to dissipate form the tank. It can also foster mold.

Pure ammonia, that does NOT foam when shaken is preferred for fishless cycling. Clean and controllable.

Well, you're just cycling a 5g for a Betta, right? First see how long it takes for the ammonia to decline. Watch for nitrite to go up then down. You may have enough ammonia to do a Betta-sized cycle already. Once the nitrite starts to decline, you can put a fish or snail in there to keep the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria fed...and you're home free.

Let us know how it goes.
 
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