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Best way to cycle a tank fishless

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oceanblue28

oceanblue28

Wow, its been a while since I last posted. I blame the old bucket of bolts that was my ancient and dieing laptop. It gave out on me. So I got a new one and am back.

ANYWAYS

I was wondering, what is the best way to cycle my ten gallon planted tank, without risking the health of the betta I plan on putting in there aka cycling fishless. I have the water on really warm, at 84 degrees because I read that it helps to promote the growth of the beneficial bacteria and thus reduce cycling time.

I have heard that I can either "feed" the tank a small pinch of food in the filter or use store bought ammonia and add a few drops in the filter. What is recommended?

I am going to also ask the people on the planted tank forum that I am a member of to see what they say. I am just asking around, doing research and getting a good idea of what to do. Its always a good idea to keep one's options open.
 
Ive only set up an aquarium once.
12 gallon very heavily planted.
I did not rlly cycle it, i started with garden soil substrate, like 20 different plants, and a cup of water out of a jar with duckweed and various microfauna and never had that spike ppl talk about.
I did not throw any stuff in it bec i figured the organics in the garden soil i used would be enough.
ammonia/nitrite started out at 4ppm and went down to 0 in 2 weeks and never got higher since.
nitrate went from 10 to 20 after 2 weeks and 4 weeks later it was 0 too and stayed that way.
But whatever way you choose to do it, test a lot!
 
I have always added a little fish food to the tank when it's first set up and and another small amount of fish food in 2 weeks. Let it sit an additional 2 weeks and it's ready for fish.
 
Do you have an Ammonia / Nitrite / Nitrate kit? That would be helpful toward monitoring where the tamk is in its cycling. A small sponge or box filter would really be helpful in getting through the Nitrogen Cycle.
 
also, turn up the heat---to like 80F---the higher the heat, the faster the bacteria replicate and the faster the nitrogen cycle process.
 
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What is the reading?
 
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