How do you cycle a 125 liter (30 gallons) tank?

Question

iv just set up my tropical freshwater tank and what do I do from there?

I'm new to the hobby and iv got the water and gravel and the plants and all that stuff. and how long do you have to wait before you can put fish in, and how do you add the fish? could someone give me some instructions on what to do please. Thanks!

Answer 1

welcome to the fish hobby keeping!!! theres 2 ways to cycle a tank one is fish cycling and the other is fishless cycling.

cycling with fishes

http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/5...

cycling without fishes

http://www.nippyfish.net/nitrogencycle.h...

for cyclig without fishes i would use fish food instead of pure ammonia.

goodluck!!!! =D

i agree with the person who said to use that cycle stuff. its expensive where i live though it may not be expensive in your place.

Answer 2

I'm in the midst of cycling a 30 gal myself. It's super easy.

Put in all your gravel, decorations etc.

Since you have no fish in yet, you can go ahead and fill the tank with tap water.

Once filled, treat the tank with AmQuel, Seachem Prime, or any good water conditioner THAT REMOVES CHLORINE.

Set up your filter, heater, air pump, etc. and let them run for about 24 hours to fully condition the water.

At this point you can add a SMALL amount of fish, I'm using 6 Zebra Danios and they are doing SPECTACULARLY even with the spikes.

Treat the water with Stresszyme or some kind of enzyme treatment and furthermore and if it's possible to get some gravel or biological filter material from an established tank to to put in the filter housing to help "seed" the cycling process.

At this point I also added some Apontogeon bulbs ($2 for 5-6 bulbs at the pet store) to start growing as plants help to stabilize your tank.

You also need a good test kit that tests for at least ammonia and NITRITES. Once you add the fish, test both daily.

Feed sparingly at first (even though my ZD's ALWAYS act like they're starving.)

In about 5 days you see the ammonia start to spike, don't panic, this is normal and Zebra Danios should handle it fine, just watch them. In about 4 - 5 more days you'll see the ammonia begin to subside but the nitrites will start to spike. Again don't panic, just keep monitoring the fish, and treating with Stresszyme or equivalent on a weekly basis. In a week or few after that the nitrites should start to subside. Once your ammonia and nitrites reach 0 PPM, congratulations your tank is cycled. You may add more fish (in phases) and then start monitoring your nitrAte levels and perform 25% water changes every 1 - 2 weeks.

Answer 3

use a product called Cycle. or use some inexpensive hardy fish. feeder comets if it is going to be a goldfish tank. feeder guppies if a tropical tank.

when you get baby guppies, and you will, tank is safe for nearly anything.

cycle works well, but i still like to do the guppie thing. they are only a dime or less each.