Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, i wanna start cycling, right away. here are a few preliminary/precautionary questions, any help wuld be appreciated

Btw, I've already decided to try fishless cycling first. This'll be my first tank, so I need to obtain the bacteria...come to think of it, I'll probably need the testing kits as well...anyway, ---

1. First off, I already house two turtles in the tank I wish to cycle. Any suggestions for where to re-locate them for a few weeks? Any particular place where they'd be comfy and cozy?

2. What bacteria do I get? I can get cultures of pretty much any strain of bacteria at Carolina (that science supply superstore), I was just wondering if anyone knew of a species that was especially efficient?

3. Is it possible to simply start now, with the ammonium that's already in the water? I already started de-chlorinating the water, so thats done, I have way more than I need to start cycling.

I don't think you need to relocate your turtles to cycle your tank, I think their waste will contribute to the process. I know you can purchase some "starter" or take a handful of gravel from an established tank to speed up the cycling (not really necessary) but your turtles will be fine before, during, and after. The hardest part for me in getting my tank cycled was being able to leave it alone. I always wanted to DO something...killed a lot of fish that way. Now I just have to remember not to clean my filter media in chlorinated water.

Good luck! Nancy

You can see a tank with bacteria but it still takes time for it to cycle. You also have to keep in mind that once the tank is seeded you do need ammonia in there for it to cycle. SOO if the ammonia level is high from the turtle waste there is you start.

From scratch there are several methods you could use.

Here is a good site to refer to.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/bcycling.htm

This gives you ways to cycle tanks without fish at all as well as the conventional method. I have cycled tanks with seeding and then fish, from scratch and with nothing but fish, taking crud from a cycled tank's filter pads and seeding it into the new tank.

Steve