Trying to cycle my tank????

Can I ask how do I cycle my fish tank without fish??? I don't have money to spend on fish that might die and also don't want to put them through that ordeal really!! I have it all set back up and put seeding in from other tank, not sure if enough (I had a 29 gal bio cube cartridge that I tore apart after swishing around in tank). I thought I was supposed to put prime in too and realized if it gets rid of ammonia, how is my tank going to get ammonia now?? I understand the process but I think I used fish the one time I cycled a tank!!! OMG please help I'm losing my mind!!!!

feeder fish are a cheap and easy cycling alternative

My mother said she could go through renton on her way home tomorrow and meet at a public place somewhere close to 405 and 167 come together and she could give you some trumpet snails if you want. I'd need a text early in the morning for me to gather them up before she leaves and I'll turn the volume up on my phone. Let me know if you get this in time. I personally don't like to use feeder fish, half the time they're diseased themselves. Trumpet snails are hardy and they're a lot easier to find a home for if you didn't want them after the cycle is up

Oh and just realized something that I forgot to mention. When people take media out of established filters and put it in the filter of a newly set up tank, it's not done because of the ammonia, it's done because there's established beneficial bacteria on that old filter media. Beneficial bacteria is what controls the ammonia spikes. The trumpet snails job would be to give the bacteria food,their poo, so that the good bacteria doesn't die off. You did the right thing by dosing with prime to remove the chlorine, because chlorine will kill off the good bacteria. You're doing everything right, now you just need to to have something in the tank that will produce poo so that the bacteria has a chance to populate more in the filter and onto the substrate and decor.

I think tomorrow I'm gonna go down and get 2-3 rosey barbs. I have a nice live plant I want to put back in to save it. I had an adult rosey barb and a goldfish years ago when I inherited the tank already established. I had them a while and when I finally found out what it was it died.

You could also try a fresh piece of shrimp from the local grocery store.
my buddy with oscar's and red bellies did a fishless cycle on both tanks.

make sure they are raw pieces of shrimp.
took him just a few weeks to cycle.
i think 1 piece of raw shrimp is under 3 bucks.

keri_75 wrote: Can I ask how do I cycle my fish tank without fish??? I don't have money to spend on fish that might die and also don't want to put them through that ordeal really!! I have it all set back up and put seeding in from other tank, not sure if enough (I had a 29 gal bio cube cartridge that I tore apart after swishing around in tank). I thought I was supposed to put prime in too and realized if it gets rid of ammonia, how is my tank going to get ammonia now?? I understand the process but I think I used fish the one time I cycled a tank!!! OMG please help I'm losing my mind!!!!

You want to cycle your tanks quickly? Ask someone on here if you can borrow some all ready cycled media. Set it in you tank along with the fish and your good to go. Also, it doesnt sound like you (the OP) are planning on putting a large amount of fish in your tank. So dont worry about it. Yes your tank will go through its cycles but nothing extreme. I always (when starting a new tank) grab some media from an existing tank, turn on the filters, add the fish and away we go.

AE86-Danny wrote:You could also try a fresh piece of shrimp from the local grocery store.
my buddy with oscar's and red bellies did a fishless cycle on both tanks.

make sure they are raw pieces of shrimp.
took him just a few weeks to cycle.
i think 1 piece of raw shrimp is under 3 bucks.

I am sorry, but please explain how this would work. Cause that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. So please enlighten me.

madness wrote:

keri_75 wrote: Can I ask how do I cycle my fish tank without fish??? I don't have money to spend on fish that might die and also don't want to put them through that ordeal really!! I have it all set back up and put seeding in from other tank, not sure if enough (I had a 29 gal bio cube cartridge that I tore apart after swishing around in tank). I thought I was supposed to put prime in too and realized if it gets rid of ammonia, how is my tank going to get ammonia now?? I understand the process but I think I used fish the one time I cycled a tank!!! OMG please help I'm losing my mind!!!!

You want to cycle your tanks quickly? Ask someone on here if you can borrow some all ready cycled media. Set it in you tank along with the fish and your good to go. Also, it doesnt sound like you (the OP) are planning on putting a large amount of fish in your tank. So dont worry about it. Yes your tank will go through its cycles but nothing extreme. I always (when starting a new tank) grab some media from an existing tank, turn on the filters, add the fish and away we go.

AE86-Danny wrote:You could also try a fresh piece of shrimp from the local grocery store.
my buddy with oscar's and red bellies did a fishless cycle on both tanks.

make sure they are raw pieces of shrimp.
took him just a few weeks to cycle.
i think 1 piece of raw shrimp is under 3 bucks.

I am sorry, but please explain how this would work. Cause that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. So please enlighten me.

quite simple.
buy a piece of fresh, raw shrimp at your local grocer.
turn your fish tank on, filters going etc..etc.. and let the piece of shrimp basically "rot" in the tank.
this will produce high amounts of ammonia and get your tank cycling.

So you want to put a raw piece of shrimp in the water and let it rot? Find it very hard to believe and a very longgggggggg process, if it works at all. A 10 cent gold fish would be quicker, cheaper and better. Even a teaspoon of urine would work extremely faster than rotten shrimp.

i never have nor will i ever cycle a new tank. with the amount of water i change i never had had problems. when i set up a new tank i change at least 150% weekly for the first month then go back down to my normal 100% weekly thats if i dont have saturated bio media of course. note that these are in multiple changes not one. 3 per week on all tanks minimum. never had any problems and my fish grow super fast

madness wrote:So you want to put a raw piece of shrimp in the water and let it rot? Find it very hard to believe and a very longgggggggg process, if it works at all. A 10 cent gold fish would be quicker, cheaper and better. Even a teaspoon of urine would work extremely faster than rotten shrimp.

This my friend is where I myself, and you are wrong.


It took him just over 2 weeks to cycle a 55 AND a 72.
when i purchased 10 feeders, on a 50 gallon it took me basically 3 weeks to cycle.


i witnessed the proof. If you are a non believer try it yourself, but please don't bash this method before you test it out for yourself.

No need to test it. I dont agree, so no big deal. I (like Fishman) have never cycled a tank, no need to. But for the OP, if cycling is what you want to do, just get some cycled media from someone. Then your tank is good to go from day 1. If I lived closer I would gladly give you some media. I use plastic scrubbies in my filters for the media, and I have hundreds of them.

I've heard of the raw shrimp method, but when I did a fishless cycle, I used ammonia from the hardware store.

Betty wrote:I've heard of the raw shrimp method, but when I did a fishless cycle, I used ammonia from the hardware store.

But the smell...

The raw shrimp method works wonders, it really surprised me.
Like i said, even tho i went with the 10 feeders in a 50 gallon to get things going, i strongly suggest the raw shrimp method.

I knew a guy that would pee in his tank.... not allot, just a lil' bit every day... to keep ammonia in there... I think its weird, he swears by it.... kinda a weird hippy dude. lol

OMG you guys are killin me!!! LOL I ended up getting media from my other tank and buying 3 fish I want to start with!!!! Amazing how many different ways people do things!!!

Ive heard of the shrimp method before and I I've seen someone do it with fish food too. I'm too antsy to wait for a tank t cycle itself, always just used a combo of media and decor from another tank to do my insta-cycles.

Ratlova30 wrote:Ive heard of the shrimp method before and I I've seen someone do it with fish food too. I'm too antsy to wait for a tank t cycle itself, always just used a combo of media and decor from another tank to do my insta-cycles.

yeah when i did my 50gallon -> 125gallon merge i did an instant cycle.
lucky for me i used all of the old decor (consisted of 25 or so river rocks that had been in the tank for months prior)
i used both HOB filters, literally unplugged walked across the room and plugged em in so i had insane amounts of beneficial bacteria from this.
also used 25-30 gallons of soiled aquarium water (already used water from the 50 gallon tank)

so right off the bat i had some nitrates in there, believe it or not to this day never had an ammonia spike on the 125.
it was cycled in less than 12 hours in my opinion, basically as long as it took the filter to cycle the tank a few times it was over.

Ok so my tank ran for 2-3 days with filter media from other tank, I got 3 Pearl Danios 2 days ago and added another live plant and a little more filter media. My ammonia,nitrite and nitrate levels still show zero. It's a 20 gal. tank, should I add more fish???

You should be fine. as long as the media from the other tank is still in the 20, you are good to go.

I like to see a lil nitrate... but your call. the ammonia spike shouldnt be too bad if you got media and live plants though.