Fishless Cycling

[neon]

I want to bring in my shubunkins from my pond into a tank this year to overwinter.  I've filled up the tank, put in my old fluval filter and added cycle.  Is there anything else I should do to cycle the tank?  Its a 33 gallon. 

[babblefish1960]

If you have any media of any kind in the pond over summer, you may want to transfer that to your fluval for setting up the winter tank. The cycle brand liquid will not actually cycle your tank, and if you don't prepare, you will have a large cycle to actually go through that could invariably harm your fish.

Alternatively, or additionally, whatever you put in the fluval from the pond, will need to be fed, so until the fish are there, throw in a dead shrimp from dinner and let it rot until you place the goldfish in there, or simply start creating a nitrogen cycle by adding ammonia to the water daily until you get stable nitrate readings and a nitrite reading of zero, after it has spiked of course.

Good luck with that, it is so sad that we are already contemplating winter.

[Jeff1192]

I am currently keeping an eheim filter's bacteria alive by running it in a large rubbermaid container and adding 1ppm ammonia every day (because I'm not getting my aquarium until next month). I am testing the water regularily and it's working very well. It's very easy to do as long as you have the test kits to measure your levels. I found the ammonia at Home Hardware, the brand is Old Country and it's really cheap (1.99 for a large bottle).
Good luck

[neon]

So do I just add this ammonia to the water?

[Jeff1192]

Yes. You'll have to experiment at first with the amount it will take to get to 1ppmillion. Add a little bit and test. If still low, add a little more and test again. I'm running my filter in a large rubbermaid bin and it takes about 2mL for me to get to 1 ppmillion.

Jeff