[pinkfish800]

I just bought a one gallon aquarium.
It has a undergravel filter.
I already have everything required to do a fishless cycle with ammonia.
I have API test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites.
My water conditioner has aloe, and its not Prime.
All I want to know is, do I need to cycle this tank? Should I?
HOW DO I DO IT?
PLEASE SPELL EITHER METHOD OUT VERY SIMPLY FOR ME BECAUSE I USUALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND A WORD OF THESE THREADS :shock:
Thanks in advance :-D:-D:-D

 

[Aly Homewood]

Cycling a 1 gallon is pretty much impossible, get prime abe ads 2-4 drops daily as well as testing you're water every day, don't let ammonus get above 0.5 ppm even with prime, that or get a bigger tank, you can get Rubbermaid or sterilite bins that work just fine very cheaply.

 

[pinkfish800]

Cycling a 1 gallon is pretty much impossible, get prime abe ads 2-4 drops daily as well as testing you're water every day, don't let ammonus get above 0.5 ppm even with prime, that or get a bigger tank, you can get Rubbermaid or sterilite bins that work just fine very cheaply.

Is that after you put the fish in? Like 24 hours after you start up the tank?

 

[Aly Homewood]

Prime neutralizes ammonia for 24 hours, add it every 24 hours, you still need to do water changes, neutralized ammonia still shows up on a normal drop test, such as API, you still need to do water changes when the ammonia gets to 0.5 ppm

 

[Aqua Aurora]

Any size tank can be cycled with time and an ammonia source, I don't understand why so many think its impossible..
You should really upgrade tank though, larger tank= more water volume=more dilution of ammonia, also more room for the fish, always good.

 

[Olivia27]

I cycled a 1.5 the fishless way in 4 weeks. Never tried a one-gal but I suppose there's little difference between 1.5 and 1. I would also encourage you to upgrade though. If you can't right now, then at least plan to. I've always been told that 3gal is a minimum, and a 1-gal is a hospital tank.

 

[NickAu]

If you have lots live plants including floating ones you could easily forget about any "cycling" with the Betta.

 

[Aly Homewood]

Aquas right, I suppose what I meant is creating a stable cycle is incredibly difficult in my opinion it's not really enough to justify trying, heavily planted would work too though, I recommend water sprite, it's a great nutrient sponge.

 

[pinkfish800]

So fish in or fish out? Which is best?

 

[pinkfish800]

With pure ammonia by the way.

 

[Olivia27]

So fish in or fish out? Which is best?

With pure ammonia by the way.

Welp if you say "with pure ammonia by the way" then you already made your choice! You can't use pure ammonia with fish-in method. That's the main difference between the two.

Either way, I can explain the fishless cycle to you if you want, but like what has already been stated above, you can also get a whole bunch of live plants and skip this whole thing altogether. With that in mind, here is the fishless cycling:

1) With the help of your test kit, get 4 ppm into the tank water
2) Run the filter
3) Wait. You can use chemicals or filter media from an already-established tank to fast-forward the waiting period but if you don't have any, you're gonna have to wait at least a week.
4) One day you will test your water and see that the ammonia level has dropped (usually to 2 ppm). Get it back to 4 ppm, and now start testing for both ammo and nitrite.
5) In less time than however long you waited the first time you will see that the ammo level has dropped again. Like before, get it back up to 4 ppm. Keep testing for nitrites, at this point its test result should skyrocket.
6) One day you will see that your nitrite level has magically dropped as well. That's when you start reading nitrates, and at this point your tank has been fully cycled.

Pro tip: If you want to make extra sure your tank is indeed cycled, add 4 ppm of ammonia (after you get a 0 Ammo reading) and then test the water again within 24 hours. If your tank manages to break down 4 ppm of ammo into zero within that time, you can bet money your tank is fully cycled.

 

[pinkfish800]

I haven't started cyclin yet that's why I said that lol.
What about this link is it incorrect?http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=555434

 

[pinkfish800]

I have ammonia left over from the first time I attempted cycling sorry xD

 

[Olivia27]

I haven't started cyclin yet that's why I said that lol.
What about this link is it incorrect?http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=555434

Ha! Would I really cross the almighty Hallyx? no, that guide is one of the best I've ever seen. It's just a different method (the fish-in one). I'm describing to you the method I know best. Both works.

EDIT and you might not have started cycling yet, but you've mentioned about pure ammonia. If that's what you want to do then you only have one option.

 

[Aly Homewood]

You can't do a fish in cycle without prime, prime protects the fish from the ammonia, if the fish is exposed to ammonia during the cycle than there's basically no point in even cycling. You also can't use pure ammonia during a fish in cycle in a fish in cycle the fish is the ammoia source

 

[pinkfish800]

Yes, I'm well aware that you can't do both at once.
So basically you buy the fish, acclimate it, and then follow the guide?

 

[Aly Homewood]

Yeah, or you can do a fish less, since you already have the ammonia and you don't have prime, it might be more convenient just to do the fish less but whichever you want is fine.

 

[pinkfish800]

Thanks to everyone who replied ☺☺☺
One more question
Do you think the aloe in the conditioner will negatively affect the cycle? I could buy new stuff if I needed to.

 

[Olivia27]

Thanks to everyone who replied ☺☺☺
One more question
Do you think the aloe in the conditioner will negatively affect the cycle? I could buy new stuff if I needed to.

What conditioner do you use? I personally have never heard of a conditioner that has aloe in it. Nor have I ever heard of anyone putting aloe into their tanks. But then again I'm pretty much new to this

 

[Aly Homewood]

No, the aloe won't won't (I'm assuming you're talking about API stresscoat), but prime is a better conditioner and more economical (only 2 drops per gallon) and it detoxifies ammonia which is absolutely essential for a fish-in cycle and also helpful if you ever have a cycle crash, basically, it won't negatively affect the cycle but you need the affect that prime has on ammonia (bacteria and plants can still use ammonia when detoxifies with prime which as far as I know is not true for anything else, so if the bottle says it deals with ammonia you should get either seachem prime or one that doesn't do
that) I'm a big fan of prime if you can't tell.