Aquarium Fishless Cycle Freshwater Beginners Guide

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Aquarium Fishless Cycle | Freshwater Beginners Guide • In todays video, I share with you how I recommend to fishless cycle a new aquarium. • There are three ways to cycle an aquarium: • Fish-in cycle – I do not recommend this approach as it is likely to harm and kill your fish • Fishless cycle – my recommended approach that adds sources of ammonia to feed the process • Seeded filters – this avoids the whole process by using pre-cycled filter media (if you are new to the hobby, this will likely not be an option for you) • You are going to want to have your filter, aeration and heater (if you have a tropical aquarium) running throughout this process as the circulation will help speed the process up. Keep the lights off, you don’t want to experience any unwanted algae blooms! • Introduce your ammonia source (pure 100% ammonia, I have used Dr Tim’s Aquatics Solution) to your aquarium, you are aiming to keep your ammonia levels below 5ppm as this can slow down the process (I aim for 2-4ppm). • a. If you accidently add too much ammonia a simple water change (de-chlorinated) will help bring the levels down • b. Keep a record of the ammonia levels in a journal • c. Wait over an hour after adding the solution to test your ammonia levels • d. If you have some pre-bottled beneficial bacteria, now is the time to add to your aquarium (don’t worry if you don’t, the bacteria will naturally form) • Test your ammonia and PH levels every couple of days for the next week until you notice the ammonia levels dropping • Now that a week has passed, test for nitrite, if you notice that nitrites are now being produced you will be pleased to know the cycle has started. But as this is a fish-less cycle, you are responsible for maintaining ammonia levels, its also time to increase your ammonia back up to your original dose to keep feeding the bacteria. • a. Test your ammonia and add an appropriate dose to bring your aquariums ammonia level back to the original amount, for example, if you added 2ppm of ammonia and it has now dropped to 1ppm add 1ppm to your aquarium (don’t let it go over 5ppm) • For the next week+ continue to test your ammonia nitrite levels every day, you want to avoid ammonia ever reaching 0ppm as this will mean you will have to start the process again as the bacteria will start to die off. You will need to keep following this step until you notice your nitrite levels begin to drop. • a. Don’t forget to keep an eye on that pesky PH! During this process acids are created which will target your KH and ultimately PH levels • This is the last part, and you will now need to be testing daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and once you notice that following adding ammonia both ammonia and nitrate are zero within 24 hours, your cycle has completed! • a. Aim to keep introducing your ammonia if necessary to maintain a level at 1ppm for this stage • If you have any questions, please leave me a comment. • 0:00 Intro • 0:12 The Nitrogen Cycle • 0:45 Fishless Cycle • #Fishlesscycle #newaquarium #nitrogencycle #cycleaquarium #bigfishlittlefishaquatics

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