Am I cycling my tank right?




Well.. I’m cycling a 5 Gallon Tank for a Betta and an African Dwarf Frog. And.. Today I tested both Nitrite and Ammonia both reading Zero. And I decided to do some research on what exactly did I do during my Fishless Cycling. Turns out.. I don’t think I did any cycling. I did NOT add any Ammonia. So It just started out as Tap Water. I just put Tap Water with some Stress Coat. I let it run with a filter, Air stone, and a Heater. It has Pool Sand.

Did I actually cycle? Or is it just.. Pure water?




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they say to do a 90% water change the day before you get your fish, how do you keep the beneficial bacteria alive between the water change and the new fish?

If you change 90% of the water won’t it destroy the beneficial bacteria? because all of the stuff that feeds it ( ammonia, nitrite etc ) are gone and it has nothing to eat there fore the beneficial bacteria will die.

If you add something like eco-start or sera nitrivec ( benefical bacteria kick starters ) while doing fishless cycling ( i will be using pure ammonia ) won’t the eco-start or whatever kill the ammonia and nitrite therefore taking away the bacteria’s food?

I restarting my tank because it got ich and stuff, i am going to completly tear it down, boil the gravel, filter media, decorations, fake plants, and start all over again by adding completley dirt-free dechlorinated water and pure ammonia 1-2 days after resetting up my tank, any tips on this, destroying the good bacteria i have is not a concern.

Thanks!!!
You are not supposed to do water cfhanges during the fishless cycling, right?




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