The Puffer Forum

Alright, time for another noob question. I have read so much on cycling, and these guys in general. But I will actually be starting my tank this weekend. Therefore when doing the fishless cycle, all I ever read is that just add 4-5ppm of amonia . So i just wanted to make sure I didn't have to add anything else to start it other then the water conditioner and then amonia, which I might not need the conditioner since we are on a well, but we have a softener on it. So the bacteria just starts to form itself I guess? Thanks again for all your help guys, I and my future puffer really appreciate it.

You are correct, with the presence of ammonia they form to consume and so the cycle begins

Thats what I wanted to hear. Thanks, until the next question.

If you have access to media being used in a tank the process is much quicker

Only thing I have access to is the LFS, and I don't want to open up that can of worms, so I'm going the slow route.

If they have filter media they will give you take it, add ammonia as per fishless cycle until all readings check out. As a general rule fish diseases need a fish host, so should be good

Even though you're on a well, I would still add conditioner in case any metals seeped through the soil.

Finally finished the stand Saturday. Got the tank set up on Sunday. Didn't think it would take that long, but between rinsing everything thoroughly and making 1 or 2 trips to the home depot and petSmart, it took nearly all day. Got my ammonia to between 4 and 8 ppm(because that is how the API test does it). So I was going to wait until at least tomorrow before I check it to see if there has been a drop. I will post pics later of my Aquascaping skills (lol). Thanks again for your help guys.

Can't wait to see pics!

Why are you adding so much ammonia? This is actually going to stall your cycling.

Because I had read between 3 and 4 so I figured 4 would be good. And since the API test goes from 4 to 8, My color matches the 4 so it is somewhere between 4 and 7.9. Is there a more accurate test? Although I guess once it is cycled it won't matter because then it should be 0. What would you recommend I put it at once it drops down? I also went off of the article in the library but I cant pull that up right now for some reason.

Seachem does make a more accurate ammonia test, but the API tests are accurate enough.

This isn't the best pic but my real camera has a dead battery.



So, do I have to much in the back of the tank for him, or will this do, or do I need more? Thanks again for your help and advice.

It's hard to tell depth in the tank from the shot, but if all the plants are just along the backwall, I'd try to spread them out through the tank more, different places on the footprint to create broken lines of site/stuff to swim around.

Also, try to resize the pic to 800 pixel width, it's cut off.