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Which is faster to do, non-fish cycling or fish cycling? I think I am going to try non-fish cycling.

I prefer the fishless cycling and believe it to be quicker.

Best of luck...

Fishless is faster.

The fastest...est is fishless with seeding. I recently did this and only took a little over 2 weeks.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

If you get some of that "Eco-Complete" gravel, it should be even faster. I put some of that in my 20g and have yet to have any problems with amonia or nitrites, I don't even think I ever really had a big amonia spike. Though if you can't get some of that, from all of the articles I have read on different websites and from reading multitues of threads on this site about people's experiences I would have to agree with the folks above that fishless is faster. Good luck!

Hi fishguy 101,
I started using the fishless cycle and seeded my tank using Amtrite Down and also used a seeded cannister filter (running 1 week in another tank). BTW I added ammonia to my tank in the first two days in the belief I should feed the bacteria in the seeded cannister filter,(ammonia 8ppm) probably not really needed and adding fish would have been a better idea. Live and learn. After two weeks my ammonia was back to zero and I put in 4 goldfish to help feed the bacteria.

I'd go with adding some amtrite down or similar, keep an eye on the ammonia spike and when it falls to either zero or close to it use a couple of fish to provide the food for the bacteria. This method will require you to keep a close watch on your water parameters though, I did it daily as a learning exercise about water quality.

The above method took 2 weeks to get the ammonia, which I added, back to zero, I would like to know how long it would've taken without my ammonia addition. Maybe the next time I do a major overhaul of one of my tanks.

I'm not sure, but wouldn't using a product such as Amrite Down retard a tank in the cycling process?

When performing a fishless cycle using common ammonia it is necessary to continue to feed the bacteria colony by adding the ammonia regularly until your tests show you that the cycle is complete. It doesn't matter if you use a filter that was pre-treated by running on a fully cycled tank or not. You just gradually reduce the amount of ammonia you are using daily once you reach your ammonia spike and the nitrites are rising.

When it was necessary, I fishless cycled our tanks using nothing but the ammonia. Worked like a charm and never took long. First tank was the longest and that was a 75 and took 8 days from start to finish. It isn't necessary for me to do that now. Anytime I set up a new tank I have an instant cycle using nothing but what comes from other tanks.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Tammy 2004-07-04 07:50][/span]

Hi Tammy,

You followed the thread re my cichlid tank and saw what I did and the water parameters that resulted. The Amtrite Down is an Aerobic Bacteria based product containing Nitrosomonas/Nitrobacters and Bacillus Species which provides "Instant Bio Starting, Restores bio system after Medication and Water Exchange, Reduces Toxic Ammonia & Nitrite" and the blurb goes on, therefore reducing the time it takes for these types of bacteria colonies to start and grow. Now these added bacteria need something to feed off as there is minimal ammonia in a newly filled tank hence the addition of ammonia or the use of a couple of fish to provide the much needed ammonia.

As for retarding the cycling process Amtrite Down actually speeds it up by firstly providing the bacteria that will eventually grow after the water starts to develop ammonia caused by other bacteria living in the water and secondly by providing the second needed type of bacteria which turns the nitrite produced by ammonia eating bacteria into nitrate. What is necessary is to provide sufficient ammonia for the process to continue.

As can be seen with my cichlid thread I never had a nitrite spike and I put that down to the fact that the bacteria required to break the nitrite down was already present in sufficient quantity to keep the nitrite that developed under control (0ppm).

Further to adding Amtrite Down I also used a somewhat seeded filter which also would have contained a colony of sorts of both types of bacteria.
This I am assuming (which is a dangerous thing to do) is what you can do now by using 'old' stuff from your tanks be it filter material, gravel or water?

It isn't necessary for me to do that now. Anytime I set up a new tank I have an instant cycle using nothing but what comes from other tanks.

Now as I said assuming is dangerous and please correct me if that is not the case and explain further what you meant by this quote.

Amtrite Down is not the only product out there that helps the cycle along, it just happens to be the one that is readily available here.