So, from all the site's I am on, for some reason, the methods to do this get messed up:

Cycling a tank from scratch
- Set up your tank per instructions or as you would like it... including your filtration. If you have a friend with a clean and cycled tank... go to the next option.
- At this point you have 2 options: A fish cycle or a fishless cycle. Often this depends on you. I advocate a fish cycle and will give instructions on how to do that... I can't give instructions on a fishless cycle and am hoping someone will respond with those instructions.
Fish cycling:
1. depending on the size of the tank, get the necessary "poop machines" (ie. 1 gal.= 1 fish, 2 gal.= 2 fish, 5 gal.= 4 fish, 10 gal.=7 fish) the fish I usually use are zebra danios... after the cycle is up, they are fed to my friend's oscar.
2. add the fish and refrigerated Bio-Spira(if you wish).
3. continue to feed as needed and test your water levels (especially ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates daily.)
4. first few days, you ammonia will spike, if it gets too high, do a partial WC, otherwise just stick it out.
5. next few days, you will get a nitrite spike, once again, if it gets too high, do a partial WC, otherwise just stick it out.
6. in the final step of the cycle, you will get a nitrate spike... once it gets to 40 ppm, you can begin your regular WC routine. I do WC's whenever my nitrates get above 40 ppm.

Cycling from an established tank:
1. get substrate and/or filter media from a clean and cycled tank (the more you get, the faster you cycle).
2. place it in your new set up tank.
3. add fish and check water daily. if anything other than nitrates appears... you need to refer to 4-6 above.
-If you cycle properly from an established tank, you can cycle faster than overnight with possibly no spikes.
-Transferring water from an old tank to a new does little if anything to cycle.... you need media and substrate that contains more beneficial bacteria, not water.


*I wanted to add a note. The reason I have continued with the fish cycling since the concept of fishless has come up is not because I don't care about the fish. I have heard of people not getting enough beneficial bacteria growth from a fishless cycle and their fish send the tank into a mini-cycle.
But, honestly, either way... you can have too small of an ammonia source... I know someone that tried to cycle a 55 gal. tank with 3 zebra danios and then couldn't figure out why they weren't getting anything about 0. Some people.

I hope this helps everyone.
:D

I myself started off with traditional cycling, but I have seen the argument made that fishless cycling is much more humane, as there are no animals involved that have to suffer. If I had known this before, I would've chosen this method. However, now that I have several several established tanks already, I simply seed any new tanks with my old tanks, and tada, almost instant cycle.

Anyways, if you wish to try your hand at fishless cycling...
GUIDE TO FISHLESS CYCLING

Material Needed

• pure household ammonia: common in many stores, but not to be confused with other "tainted" ammonia products. Be care to read all labels when going out to purchase this 100% pure ammonia, no color or detergents.
• filter media from an already established tank (optional): while optional, this will really help to get your tank started. highly recommended; check your local clubs and internet forums for ways to obtain this.

Method Outline
1) Add about 5 drops of ammonia per 10 Gallons into the water on a daily basis. (Source: Algone.com)
This will raise the ammonia level in the tank to about 5 ppm.

2) As soon as you are able to detect nitrite levels, reduce the ammonia input to 3 drops per day.
Nitrite levels will soon rise to about the same level as ammonia levels.

It will take a while, but be patient and wait for both the ammonia and nitrite levels to drop off to ZERO (or as close to zero as you can).

In either fishless or with fish cycling, the key is to always keep a track of your ammonia and nitrite levels. Test kits are available at most fish stores for ~$8 each.

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*** Please note that often, ammonia may spike again, at which point, you should wait futher to put in your fish. It is a hard and impatient process, but it is indeed necessary to ensure health and safety for your aquarium and its aquatic life.

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P.S. Thanks so much for making this article! It is very useful and it will be pinned.

wow you two thanks for stickying this. We probably need one on water params etc for newbies

I find that my wild guppies are great for cycling tanks. They are tough fish and quite interesting. I keep them for amusement and to cycle new tanks. When the tank is cycled they go back into their own tank.

Great info, guys! Let me add that every time a fish is added to an established tank the tank will go through another cycling. Granted, not as dramatic as the initial cycling. The more the fish, the bigger the cycle. Smaller tanks will see bigger cycles just because the ammonia being put out by the fish isn't as diluted as it would be with a larger tank.

I would just like to add this:
I saw Bio-Spira mentioned in the first post. I'd just like to say that if you use bio-spira, there is no need to get fish for cycling. Just buy the fish you want, add the fish, add bio-spira and from what I've heard from people that use it, the tank will be cycled in a couple of days. The spikes will be alot shorter and not nearly as strong, so there is minimal stress put on the fish.