First Fishless Cycle

[flyinfool2]

Hi all,

After many years of being out of the hobby, I have decided to pick it up again (my 2 yr old son loooooves fish!).
I have done a lot of reading on this forum and have decided to go with a fishless cycle. I wish I knew about this years ago. I am familiar with the nitrogen cycle. I have everything set up and started the cycle about 36 hrs ago. I just wanted to run the specs by some knowledgeable and experienced folks to see what they thought. Thanks for any input!

29 gallon tank

Only decoration right now is plain pea sized gravel substrate

AquaClear 50 HOB - sponge pre-filter on intake, 1 internal sponge layer, 1 biomax media layer, removed carbon media, replaced with empty floss filter media

200 Watt heater - set to 82 F

SpongeBob bubbler for added aeration

Water Specs:

Local Tap, de-chlorinated & de-chloramined with NovAqua Plus Conditioner

I did use about 5 gallons of Distilled water (bottles from Walmart) to bring down the very hard tap water initially

Current tank readings - PH 8.0, GH 150 ppm, KH 80 ppm

Dosed 3 ppm Ammonia (Janitorial Grade from Ace Hardware)


So that's what I have set up now. I know its a waiting game now, patience, and give it a few days before I measure any Ammonia drop and go from there. Any other considerations, how does this look to everyone? Thanks!

[imma24]

Looks great! You've accounted for everything and doing a fishless cycle which is fantastic - many people gripe about doing it that way when there's a kid involved - they just want fish in their tank and don't consider that an uncycled tank can be harmful.

The only other things I might recommend are getting a smaller additional filter to increase your filtration to twice the size of your tank - 29 gal would benefit from filtration meant for 60gal. The other issue is getting a smaller tank (like 5 gal) to quarantine new fish after you add your initial stock - just keep the tank in storage until you need it and run a small sponge or internal box filter in your main tank to use on the quarantine.

[imma24]

Looks great! Im impressed you are doing a fishless cycle with a child in the house LOL - most people just want fish in there right away.

May I add that you might want to increase your filtration so it is enough for double the size of your tank - hence, another smaller filter so you have enough filtration for 60gal.

Also, it's a good idea to get a smaller (like 5gal) tank to keep in storage for quarantining new fish once you get your initial stock in the tank. You can run a sponge filter or small internal box filter in your main tank which can be put into the QT when needed.

[flyinfool2]

Looks great! You've accounted for everything and doing a fishless cycle which is fantastic - many people gripe about doing it that way when there's a kid involved - they just want fish in their tank and don't consider that an uncycled tank can be harmful.

The only other things I might recommend are getting a smaller additional filter to increase your filtration to twice the size of your tank - 29 gal would benefit from filtration meant for 60gal. The other issue is getting a smaller tank (like 5 gal) to quarantine new fish after you add your initial stock - just keep the tank in storage until you need it and run a small sponge or internal box filter in your main tank to use on the quarantine.

I do have another 5 gallon with an internal sponge/cartridge filter that I plan on using as a QT. Should I just put the internal filter in the 29 gal for now? The internal filter is designed for 10 gal, so that would effectively bring the total filtration on my tank to 60 gal.

[imma24]

I do have another 5 gallon with an internal sponge/cartridge filter that I plan on using as a QT. Should I just put the internal filter in the 29 gal for now? The internal filter is designed for 10 gal, so that would effectively bring the total filtration on my tank to 60 gal.

Yes, any filter that you will use for a QT should stay in your main tank and cycle along with your larger filter - then just transfer it for use with your QT. Be aware that the smaller filter is really not meant for 10gal - more like for 5 so that'll work for the QT.

I don't think you'll have problems with your 29 with that kind of filtration as long as you don't overstock the tank.

[flyinfool2]

Update:
So it has been one week since the start of my tank cycle, and I have no change in Ammonia levels (2-3ppm), and no nitrItes reading....
About five days into the cycle I added a second filter to bring total filtration up to par with a 29 gal tank. (One Aquaclear 50 and One Top Fin 30 <--came with tank)

Is it normal to have no change yet, only one week in? I know patience is the key, but just want to be sure. I hope that the de-chlor I used (NovAqua Plus conditioner) doesn't prevent BB growth (it includes some sort of "beneficial slime" coat), or not get rid of enough chloramine to allow BB growth....

[Mister Limpet]

I wanna see pics of the SpongeBob bubbler in action!

[flyinfool2]

Day 9, no change in ammonia levels (2-3ppm) and no nitrites.... should I be seeing anything yet?

[Cermet]

Nine days and with no adding of ammonia to the tank, I'd think some ammonia would disperse to the atmosphere; are you, by any chance still adding ammonia to the tank? If so, stop that and allow it to fall to zero. Then add to 1-2 ppm ammonia and let that fall to zero. Continue until fully cycled (nitrites come and go.) Also, are your nitrates increasing? Finally, what is your pH - that can strongly affect cycling a filter.

[flyinfool2]

Haven't added any ammonia since day one, PH staying at 7.8

No nitrates either.