Cleaning The Tank While Fish-less Cycling

When I did a fishless cycle, the tank didn't need cleaning. But all I had in there was water, substrate, the filter, a heater and the ammonia I'd added.
What do you have in the tank that's making it look grubby?

Are you adding ammonia?


Fishless cycles are usually done before plants are put in the tank. When there are fish in the tank, ammonia is added tiny bit by tiny bit over 24 hours so the level never gets high enough to show on our testers. Plants can cope with this but a lot of them cannot cope with a single dose equivalent to what fish would produce over 24 hours. They are either damaged or even killed by a single dose of ammonia.
If you have a fair number of plants you don't even need to do a fishless cycle.



But the short answer to your first question is yes, you can do water changes during fishless cycles. Once it's done, add a dose of ammonia.

I am adding ammonia yes, two plants look as if I’ve killed them the others look like they are growing new roots etc so let’s hope I don’t kill anymore. I’ve never done any sort of cycle before so least next time I know how I can do it better.

I did get some cheap toothbrushes to clean surfaces etc so when I do a water change I’ll gently scrub the plants etc and they should clean up, I also got plant care tools to help me reach them.

Thanks guys