You they say you are supposed to do a 90 % water change right after the fishless cycle is done, well…..?
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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Unless you plan on quarantining any new fish you will most likely get ick again. So tearing down the tank is pointless. Raise the temp to 86 degrees and go fishless for 2 weeks , this alone will kill the ick. Ick needs a host, with no fish to host it will die in 2 weeks.
Doing a 90% water change does NOT kill the bacteria. There is a very small percentage of the tanks bacteria free floating in the water column.
The majority of the bacteria is in your filter media or bio media and in the substrate. When doing large water changes is important to match the tanks water and makeup waters Temperature, Ph, and alkalinity.
After a cycle you should really only need to do no more than a 50% water change,
Ah the mythical Super Cycle. The cycle that grows a really large bacterial colony right? What happens to all the bacteria that you grow when there is not enough food to support it????? It dies.
The other "catch 22" of a super cycle is that if you put enough food in for the large bacteria strain your nitrates will be so high that they will kill your fish.
you dont have do change any water after cycling.
once the tank has cycled there shouldnt be any reason that you would have to change anymore than 25% of the water weekly
You do not need to tear everything down and start over. What you should do is a super cycle.
Raise your temperature to 86 degrees F. Add enough Pure Ammonia to get a reading of 10ppm, this is way above the level you would use in a normal Ammonia Cycle (which is 3-5ppm).
By raising the temp and amount of ammonia you are creating an environment were no parasites or bacteria can live. Especially Ich as it can’t live past 82 degrees F.
The cycle may take a bit longer but once done your tank will be super cycled and will handle much higher bioload when complete.
You do not do water changes during the cycle, at the end you may not need one either. During regular cycling you will probably not have Nitrate readings higher than 20ppm, however with a super cycle you may get Nitrates off the charts.
If this happens do small 20-30% water changes every other day after your super cycle is complete. You would do the same if you have high nitrate readings after a regular cycle.
Also keep your light running 24 hours a day.
NOTE: you cannot do a super cycle with live plants or fish (obviously).
Your tank already has the bacteria needed to jump start the cycle so please do not do a large cleaning just do a super cycle, it will be faster than you think!
Good Luck!
You WILL have to do a big water change before adding fish to a tank you have done a fish-less cycle on or you will end up with sick fish. All the ammonia you have added during the cycle will turn to nitrites which will then turn to nitrates, these nitrates will build up to a very high level which would be very harmful to your new additions. A 90% water change before you add fish will remove 90% of these nitrates and should therefore make the water safe for the fish. The bacteria in the filter will be ok for 24 hours but you can do the big water change on the day you add fish if you want. Test the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels with a liquid test kit before you add the fish to make sure the levels are suitable. There is no real need to change water during the cycle as the bacteria are actually in the filter media, not in the water but it wouldn’t do any harm and it might help avoid a big swing in ph which might hinder your cycle. If you do change water during the cycle, do it just before you add the ammonia.
Lots more information on fish-less cycling here… http://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/