Glasstapper
11-17-2006, 07:28 PM
I recently bought a 5 gallon setup for a betta I plan on getting soon, but I thought I would cycle his tank for him first. It's suggested that any tank for a betta bigger than 3 gallons should go the cycle route.
So I was looking around at the different methods of cycling. There's your fishy cycle, but I won't ever do that one again. It's way too stressful for me and for the fish. Then there's your fishless cycle. Everywhere I've read about fishless cycles says that you add drops of pure ammonia everyday until you're done, then either keep feeding it ammonia everyday to keep your bacteria alive or add some fish.
Now here's where I wanted to experiment. Decaying plants and rotting food add ammonia, right? Well I thought maybe I could cycle a tank just on those two without adding pure ammonia. This is how I have it setup, and what I've done.
Eco-Complete substrate (nothing on top), a corkscrew val, a small anubias, whisper 10 filter, and a submersible heater for a 10 gallon tank (I added the heater after a week). So first day, I set up the tank adding my substrate and water. I let that sit for 2 days, then added my two plants, a recently taken out old media filter from my established tank, and also a good couple of handfuls of some gravel from the established tank. I've also been adding the same amount of food that I give my fully stocked 45 gallon, so that should have been plenty. After a week, I tested the water for ammonia and the reading was 0. I decided to go another week adding even more food, and I added the heater putting it at 87F. I'm almost at the end of the second week.
My results? Ammonia is still at 0. You should see how nasty this tank is by now. The water stinks real bad, there's rotted food everywhere, and the corkscrew is definitely dying (which I intended).
So riddle me this, batman. If dying plants and rotted food is supposed to add ammonia to your tank, why isn't this supposed overload of "ammonia" not even enough to even get a reading on my test kit?
I think I'll give it one more week (if I can stand the smell). If nothing again by then, I will take the whole thing down, clean it, and start over with the pure ammonia drops.
In conclusion, it seems that you cannot fishless cycle your tank with dead plants and food as your source of ammonia quick enough for it to be a desirable method.
(that anubias is still good, though. :) I'll probably try it in my 45 when this one gets cleaned)
So I was looking around at the different methods of cycling. There's your fishy cycle, but I won't ever do that one again. It's way too stressful for me and for the fish. Then there's your fishless cycle. Everywhere I've read about fishless cycles says that you add drops of pure ammonia everyday until you're done, then either keep feeding it ammonia everyday to keep your bacteria alive or add some fish.
Now here's where I wanted to experiment. Decaying plants and rotting food add ammonia, right? Well I thought maybe I could cycle a tank just on those two without adding pure ammonia. This is how I have it setup, and what I've done.
Eco-Complete substrate (nothing on top), a corkscrew val, a small anubias, whisper 10 filter, and a submersible heater for a 10 gallon tank (I added the heater after a week). So first day, I set up the tank adding my substrate and water. I let that sit for 2 days, then added my two plants, a recently taken out old media filter from my established tank, and also a good couple of handfuls of some gravel from the established tank. I've also been adding the same amount of food that I give my fully stocked 45 gallon, so that should have been plenty. After a week, I tested the water for ammonia and the reading was 0. I decided to go another week adding even more food, and I added the heater putting it at 87F. I'm almost at the end of the second week.
My results? Ammonia is still at 0. You should see how nasty this tank is by now. The water stinks real bad, there's rotted food everywhere, and the corkscrew is definitely dying (which I intended).
So riddle me this, batman. If dying plants and rotted food is supposed to add ammonia to your tank, why isn't this supposed overload of "ammonia" not even enough to even get a reading on my test kit?
I think I'll give it one more week (if I can stand the smell). If nothing again by then, I will take the whole thing down, clean it, and start over with the pure ammonia drops.
In conclusion, it seems that you cannot fishless cycle your tank with dead plants and food as your source of ammonia quick enough for it to be a desirable method.
(that anubias is still good, though. :) I'll probably try it in my 45 when this one gets cleaned)