Fishless cycling
Encyclopedia
Fishless cycling is a form of "maturing" an aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

. In this process, ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...

 is provided to allow beneficial bacteria to colonize. Fishless cycling can reduce the chance of fish loss resulting from insufficient populations of these bacteria.

Process

Set up the aquarium with all the equipment first. To speed up the process, raise the temperature to approximately 80 °F. Then, add enough ammonia to make the ammonia test read 4-5 ppm. Excessive amounts of ammonia will not speed up the cycling process. The source of ammonia can either be from fish food (which will generate ammonia after decaying) or pure ammonia (in the form of either ammonium hydroxide
Ammonium hydroxide
Ammonia solution, also known as ammonium hydroxide, ammonia water, ammonical liquor, ammonia liquor, aqua ammonia, aqueous ammonia, or simply ammonia, is a solution of ammonia in water. It can be denoted by the symbols NH3...

 or ammonium chloride
Ammonium chloride
Ammonium chloride NH4Cl is an inorganic compound with the formula NH4Cl. It is a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammonium chloride are mildly acidic. Sal ammoniac is a name of natural, mineralogical form of ammonium chloride...

). After a couple of weeks, the first group of bacteria will grow in sufficient quantities to consume the ammonia and convert it to nitrite
Nitrite
The nitrite ion has the chemical formula NO2−. The anion is symmetric with equal N-O bond lengths and a O-N-O bond angle of ca. 120°. On protonation the unstable weak acid nitrous acid is produced. Nitrite can be oxidised or reduced, with product somewhat dependent on the oxidizing/reducing agent...

. Nitrite is also harmful. In another couple of weeks, a second group of bacteria will be present in sufficient quantities to convert the nitrite into nitrate
Nitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...

, which is much less toxic. In the meantime, continue to add enough ammonia every day to bring the ammonia level up to 1-2 ppm. Monitor both ammonia and nitrite levels in the aquarium. When both are at 0 ppm, carry out a very large water change (70-90%).
This will remove most of the nitrate buildup from cycling.

The tank is now completely cycled and can be stocked with fish.

Advantages

The most significant advantage of fishless cycling is that it can reduce fish loss due to ammonia and nitrite spikes. Fish loss can be very discouraging for beginners of fish keeping, so indirectly, fishless cycling can also help beginners get a good start.

Fishless cycling also allows the aquarium to be fully stocked from the moment it is cycled. This makes for faster stocking than having to wait several weeks between each new group of additions to the tank.

Disadvantages

  • Phosphates are often created as byproducts when decaying fish food is the source of ammonia.
  • There might not be enough ammonia to allow a sufficient population of bacteria to colonize when fish food is the source of ammonia.


Note that these are not problems when ammonium hydroxide or ammonium chloride is used as the source of ammonia.
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