Final result of Al's fishless cycling idea

[Disgirl]

Today is the 17th day of my experiment. I can call it a success now. My ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate is 5. I have been doing wc's and have added more Miracle Gro a few days ago. So it all looks good to me, I have added no water or used filter from any other tank. Had a few plants in there for a few days but the high numbers "melted" them and all were removed about 10 days ago. Just gravel and rocks and a piece of wood in there now. I plan to add a few fish next week. Thanks for interest in my experiment and I will be using this cycling in the future in fishless, unplanted tanks and will only add fish and plants after the cycle is finished. Any questions just ask!
Barb

[Eddie]

Thats excellent Barb! Really good news. 17 days is super fast too. I wonder if it could even possibly be done faster.

Thanks for taking the time!

Eddie

[rickztahone]

that's incredible Barb. 17 days instead of the usual 42 days

[KJoFan]

Sounds great Barb! I'm actually giving it a shot myself. I started a few days ago. Friday night I believe is when I added the Miracle Gro. I tested things last night and had readings of:

ammonia 2
nitrite 2
nitrate 10

I did throw in a handful of guppy grass yesterday morning just to see if it sucked any of the nitrates up. I haven't done a waterchange as yet. I will probably test again tonight to see how things are progressing and go from there.

Thanks for letting us follow you through the experiment!

[yim11]

Any chance we could get a write up/how to in the form of a sticky for this? I'd like to try this but have never done a fishless cycle before and unsure of the timelines as far as when to add more Mircle Grow, when to start doing w/c, etc.

Thanks in advance!
-jim

[Chad Hughes]

Barb,

Great job on this! I'm sure many will benefit from your efforts! Thanks to Al as well for planting the "compost" seed! LOL! Who would have thought miracle grow does more than fertilize plants. Thnaks you guys!

Best wishes!

[Disgirl]

Any chance we could get a write up/how to in the form of a sticky for this? I'd like to try this but have never done a fishless cycle before and unsure of the timelines as far as when to add more Mircle Grow, when to start doing w/c, etc.

Thanks in advance!
-jim

Yes, I would be glad to write up my experiment and how I did it. Al, should I do it and where do I put it? Thank you Eddie, Ricardo, Karen, Jim and Chad! I added another 1/4 tsp. of the fertilizer today. Don't want my good bacterias to starve to death while I wait to put fish in . I will give another update in several more days and hope all will be 0 0 0!
Barb

[bs6749]

42 days Ricardo? Never heard that one myself. I always heard about 23-25. What I do now is an instant cycle. It involves keeping multiple sponge filters in a tank and when I set up a new tank I take one that established and place it into the new tank and put a new filter into the old tank. There you have yourself an instant cycle. This also works if you know someone that can give you some filter media if you are setting up your first tank.

[Joan]

I'll also be trying this method next week on a 50 gal. A few questions. With the ammonia "wait and see" method the initial target ammonia concentration is ~5ppm for starters, but I see you only brought your water to between 3 -4. Reason? Also, looking at the Miracle Grow at Home Depot there is liquid and blue granules type, which did you use?
I haven't run a tank for several years now, so starting from scratch again with nothing to seed the tank, and will not seed with anything from any LFS, had a bad experience doing that. So, the Miracle Grow will not harm the AC filter in any way? Should I remove the charcoal layer from the filter while doing this? BTW, this is going to be a tetra tank, not a discus tank, but please don't hold that against me...lol. I had thirty discus between 01 - 04 and had to take down the beautiful tanks due to illness, but one day I plan to re-establish my 120 gal.

[Disgirl]

I'll also be trying this method next week on a 50 gal. A few questions. With the ammonia "wait and see" method the initial target ammonia concentration is ~5ppm for starters, but I see you only brought your water to between 3 -4. Reason? Also, looking at the Miracle Grow at Home Depot there is liquid and blue granules type, which did you use?
I haven't run a tank for several years now, so starting from scratch again with nothing to seed the tank, and will not seed with anything from any LFS, had a bad experience doing that. So, the Miracle Grow will not harm the AC filter in any way? Should I remove the charcoal layer from the filter while doing this? BTW, this is going to be a tetra tank, not a discus tank, but please don't hold that against me...lol. I had thirty discus between 01 - 04 and had to take down the beautiful tanks due to illness, but one day I plan to re-establish my 120 gal.

Hi Joan, I just added 1 Tbsp at the beginning to start the cycle. Then I waited to see Nitrites, then Nitrates and then the ammonia leaving as Ni and Na began. Now I am having to add more fert. every few days to keep things going until I put fish in. I did that today and tomorrow I will test and hope/expect to see no ammonia. The fert. will not harm the AC filter and no I don't think you need charcoal. I use the blue powder fert. not the liquid. It comes in several types, I used the 20/20/20. But the 15/30/15 would be OK too. Your tetra tank will be beautiful I am sure! I have one too.
Barb

[Joan]

Thanks Barb, a few more questions...Did you just dump a tablespoon of the stuff into the tank or did you dissolve it with de-chlorinated water first? Did you de-chlorinate your tank before starting the cycling and what temp did you keep the water at?

One other thing and I'm good to go...lol. Did you add more miracle grow when you saw the ammonia levels dropping at any point before the major w/c - waiting on fish? Or did you just use the initial amount, I'm surprised at the results if all you used was one initial tbls. Can't wait to try this, thanks again...

[David Rose]

Thanks Barb for testing Al's recipe and process and posting the results. I'll definitely use it on my next startup.

Thanks to Al too for sharing.

David

[Disgirl]

Joan, I filled up my 60 gal tank with tapwater at room temp (75) and added Prime to dechlor. it. Later in the day I dissolved 1 Tbsp of the fert. in a cup of tank water then dumped it in. I tested the tank water the next day and the Ammonia was 2-3ppm. I didn't add anymore fert. until day 13 when I had had no ammonia for a couple days. But beware of one thing, when you do a wc and add Prime it will give you a false positive ammonia reading. That messed up my numbers for a couple days until it went back to 0. I will now keep adding a little fert. about 1/4 tsp every couple days or more, just to put ammonia in there until I get fish to do it. And I will be letting my Nitrate reading let me know when/if to change water until I get fish and do regular wc's in there.

BTW, the only reason I did this experiment and didn't just put in a used sponge or used filtering material is so I could cycle a tank without any bad bacteria or parasites, etc. from the old tank going into my new tank. Of course I know that I could have done it the easy way as I have been doing for a long time. This is a NEW way of doing it, for those who wonder .
Barb

[Disgirl]

Thanks Barb for testing Al's recipe and process and posting the results. I'll definitely use it on my next startup.

Thanks to Al too for sharing.

David

Thanks David for your vote of confidence! I think this is going to be a great way to cycle a tank with nothing harmful going in.
Barb

[Chad Hughes]

Great job Barb! This is great data!

Best wishes!