fishless cycling

[tmkx3]

:cheer: I read the thread about fish not being for cycling. I am one of those newbies that has been told to cycle with damsels. I DON"T LIKE THIS PROCESS AT ALL. I hate the thought of torturing a live fish. How do I cycle with out the damsels? Does bio-spira ( live bacteria) cycle for you. I was told that it did. I haven't set-up my tank yet. I am researching first. I do want to say in the defense of the newbie, in my case, I was told that this was how you cycle your tank and WASN"T given another option. If I hadn't read the thread I wouldn't have known there was another way. How does fishless cycling work? :notsure:

 

[reefnut]

Yeah, unfortunately newbies are given a lot of bad advise usually. Cycling with fish does work... that was the preferred method at one time but now days we know that a fish isn't needed to achieve a good cycle.
There are two basic methods of fishless cycling. One is to use uncured live rock. The die off from the live rock will kick start the cycle. The second is by adding something that will decompose and kick start the cycle. A cocktail shrimp is often used (and what I prefer) but you could use fish food, or anything that will break down in the tank. I have even heard of people adding in a small amount of ammonia.
The idea here is to allow ammonia to build up so denitrifying bacteria will start to grow. I would stay away from commercial products and just allow nature to run its course.

 

[jcrim]

Bio-spira will not completely cycle your tank immediately. Although it is advertised to do so and many believe that it will, I tried using bio-spira. It will help speed up the cycle but your new tank will still get ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes.

 

[cougar]

Live rock or Live sand, or both would be the first option. I did mine with just live rock and new sand(not live). Taking the old filters off my old tank, and bringing a lot of water from that tank helped speed up the process. 2 weeks into it all the testing has gone ok. Part of my cycling I did buy one little damsel for my 240, he is just a tester fish though. 1 week through and he is a healthy little guy, about ready to buy a large school of chromis