How to Cycle an Aquarium Without Fish

Keeping a freshwater tropical fish aquarium or saltwater aquarium fish alive in your tank is actually quite simple. Using live fish to cycle an aquarium is most often deadly to the fish. Without a healthy biological filter in your aquarium, your fish will die very quickly. Here is a simple way to cycle an aquarium without using live fish and establish a living biological filter in your aquarium to keep all of your pets thriving and alive.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 100% pure white ammonia
• Liquid aquarium test kits (Ammonia, nitrite & nitrate)
• Aquarium
• Biological filter

1. 
   pure ammonia

   Add 1 capfull of pure ammonia (approx. 5 ml.) to each 10 gallons of aquarium water. Test with your ammonia test kit and add additional ammonia until it reaches 2 parts per million (ppm) on your ammonia test kit (no more, no less). If you have too much ammonia in the water, change a gallon or two with fresh water to lower the level. Ammonia is the toxic chemical fish excrete from their gills and is quite deadly even at low concentrations. Exposure to ammonia is the #1 reason why aquarium fish die.

2. 
   test kits

   Maintain 2 ppm ammonia, testing the aquarium water daily. After three or four days, begin testing the aquarium for nitrites (NOT nitrate yet). When you start seeing some visible nitrite levels, you'll know the first species of bacteria are growing and consuming the ammonia and converting it to nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic, but fortunately for us, there are more bacteria out there that will eat it as a food source, too. Keep maintaining the 2 ppm of ammonia and watch as the nitrite climbs higher and higher.

3. 
   new tank

   Eventually, the nitrite loving bacteria will also grow in your biological filter and the level will drop almost immediately. When your nitrites read ZERO after rising to a very high level (over 2 ppm), you'll know the bacteria in your biological filter are mature and your tank is ready for fish. You'll be ready for your first water change when your nitrates read 40+ ppm.

Tips & Warnings

• Seeding your biological filter with some filter media from another healthy aquarium can help speed up the process.
• Be patient. It's hard to resist adding fish to a new aquarium right away. The tank will eventually cycle. It takes time.
• Liquid test kits are more accurate than paper pad dip-style tests.
• Adult supervision required.
• Only use 100% (clear) ammonia with no detergents added. If you aren't sure, shake the bottle. Pure ammonia won't foam up.

Resources

• More fish help here
• Aquarium basics articles here

[Bambimorgan]

on 10/18/2009 Very good article!