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The Nitrogen Cycle: Starting Fishless

The safest way to cycle your tank is without any fish in the water! It can be hard to wait several weeks without fish in your aquarium, but if your fish die in the process, you’re wasting your money.

So how do you start the nitrogen cycle in your tank without fish? Here are some options:

  1. Use fish food. As uneaten fish food decomposes, it releases ammonia and/or ammonium into the water. If you’re using fish food, you’ll need to keep “feeding” flakes into the tank to keep the decomposition process going. Use your water test kit to monitor your progress.
  2. Use raw fish or raw shrimp. Drop a chunk of raw fish or raw shrimp that is 2 inches long and at least one inch thick into the tank. As it decomposes, it will release ammonia into the tank, and you won’t need to keep “feeding”. Use your water test kit to monitor your progress.
  3. Use pure ammonia. Add five drops of pure ammonia for every ten gallons of water in the tank. Keep doing this every day until you start to get nitrite readings with your water test kit. Once you have nitrites in the tank, you can add just three drops of pure ammonia for every ten gallons of water in the tank. Keep going until you start to get nitrate readings with your water test kit. Once you have nitrates in the tank, do a thirty percent water change and you’re ready to add fish.
  4. Use gravel and/or used filters from an established and cycled tank. This introduces good bacteria into your tank quickly and easily. But you’ll need to “feed” the tank every day with fish food until you get nitrate readings with your water test kit. This can take care of cycling your tank in just a few days! However, this can also introduce copper into your tank, which can be dangerous to invertebrates.

You need to keep up with your water testing to know when it’s safe to add fish to the tank. Rather than add all your fish at once, try a few at a time and wait a few weeks before adding more. This gives your tank a chance to catch up with the increased activity — uneaten fish food and fish waste both create ammonia as they decompose.