Dark Cycling - Cycling with JumpStart

Dark Cycling - Cycling with JumpStart
Aquarium cycling is an essential process for establishing a healthy ecosystem for fish and plants. The method known as "Dark Cycling" is a technique that consists of cycling your aquarium without light, reducing the growth of unwanted algae and promoting the activity of the beneficial colonies of bacteria.

jumpstart
Jumpstart differs from other products to accelerate the cycle, since it does not add beneficial bacteria to the aquarium, what is the use of adding bacteria if they do not have what they need to survive and multiply?

The Jumpstart is a nutritional complex that will provide all the nutrients and compounds that nitrifying bacteria need to nourish, grow and multiply, thus creating a rich environment for their development, achieving cycling in half the time or less, compared to traditional methods. 

Jumpstart dose
Daily dose - 5ml per 100L of water.
If you have a filter, as expected, with a high biological capacity, rich in biological media, you can place triple the dose at 100L in the 1st dose, that is, 15ml in 100L, then keep the daily dose of 5ml per 100L.
For aquariums with small, low-media filters, just do the daily dose.

Benefits of Dark Cycling with JumpStart:

• Minimizes unwanted algae growth.
• Quickly establishes colonies of beneficial bacteria.
• Shorten to less than half (10-12 days) the average cycling time (42 days)
• Leave the aquarium ready to live in much less time
• Provides a safe environment for adding fish.

In this guide, we will explore how to cycle the aquarium using the JumpStart product.

Summary:
- Mount the aquarium
- Turn on the thermostat
- Do the inoculation
- Turn on the filter 
- Dosing the jumpstart daily
- Keep the light off
- Create good water oxygenation
- Don't do TPA's
- Do not introduce fish or other alive during the process
- Test the water after 8-9 days

Steps to super fast and robust cycling:

Aquarium preparation:
- Assemble your aquarium with the desired layout and everything you need for the aquarium to be in operation, such as substrate and/or areon, decorations such as rocks or trunks. 

Temperature adjustment:
- Set the heater to the ideal temperature (usually between 24°C and 26°C), which promotes effective bacterial activity.

inoculate
- Inoculation of the aquarium is a critical step For the speed of cycling, since we introduce a significant amount of beneficial and nitrifying bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle right from the start.

Inoculation can be done with different "beginners".
- donation of Filtering Media
Use media from an already cycled aquarium and insert them in your new filter, you can use the media from another aquarium that you already have or you can ask a friend or acquaintance part of the medias of the filter and give you new media in return for him to put in his, so his aquarium It receives media already cycled and your friend will have the new media quickly colonized in its filter, with no harm to him with this donation.

- Use of "Brown Gunk"
As an alternative to physically transplanting the media, you can squeeze sponges or filter wool, or even the brown gunk That accumulates at the bottom of an already cycled filter inside your new filter, once again it can be a filter of you or a friend or acquaintance, putting the filter immediately into operation to ensure the survival of the bacteria.

- use of substrate, earth
As an alternative, you can use garden, flower bed or planted pot, never "virgin" land taken from the bag, as it has not yet developed the microbiome as in a land in use by plants.
A less common but also effective method, the vulgar land in a gram contains between 10 million to 1 billion bacteria, specifically nitrifying between 10,000 to 100,000, making the vulgar land a good alternative to the most effective methods of the media. Cyclades or Brown Gunk.

Using this inoculation method, place 2 or more tablespoons of soil for every 100L in a sock or in a "fine mesh" bag, close it and place it next to the water inlet for the filter, being able to shake it a little time, the bacteria of the earth will be sucked into the filter and will settle in the filter media. The water may become cloudy or "dirty" from the earth, no problem, it will clean over time. However, whenever possible use the methods above.

biological media
Fill your filter with biological media such as sponges, ceramics or other high-performance midias such as hydro biomax. Without a good amount of quality media, bacteria will not have accommodation to settle in, thus never getting a quick cycling and all the benefits of a strong bacterial flora.

Keep the filter ifalways connected
- As soon as the aquarium starts and the filter is inoculated, always keep it running.

Dose the JumpStart
- The first dose of JumpStart should be done as soon as you inoculate and put the filter to work.

Keep the light off
- In the cycling phase, the light does not need to be on, the nitrifying bacteria do not need light, nor will they ever have access to it inside the filter. Keeping the lights off or on as little as possible will prevent typical algae from appearing in the cycling. 
For super fast cycling and using this method it is advised not to plant your aquarium right from the start, the plants will demand light that leads to the algae, not only that but the plants and algae can easily use the ammonia and nitrites of the water "stealing" these foods. to bacteria, responsible for the nitrogen cycle, which we want to feed and develop in our filter.

Promote water oxygenation
- The bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle are aerobic, therefore consuming oxygen like we humans, so that we can get these bacteria to multiply quickly we need to keep the aquarium water rich in oxygen, for this we can increase the agitation on the surface with the filter outflow, use air pumps, etc. The more oxygen available in the water, the better they will be able to breathe the nitrifying bacteria.

control the pH
- The nitrifying bacteria are more comfortable with pH between 7.4 and 7.8, however they tolerate a wider range of pH's, try to keep the pH always above 6.5, ideally slightly above 7.
JumpStart helps in this pH control, however, you can test the pH of the water.
During the nitrification process, bacteria consume many bicarbonates, so the pH can descend, keep rocks or other elements in the aquarium that release bicarbonates, such as limestone or crushed corals to maintain a good pH tamponade.

don't do tpa's
- In this phase we do not want and we do not need to make TPA (partial exchange of water), when making TPA we will be diluting the nutrients that bacteria need to multiply, and we can delay or even stop the cycling process.
TPA's may be useful in other methods, not in this method, because there are no lights on or with very little light time, the algae will not be a problem, if they appear due to their natural clarity that they take away fromThey will disappear later.

How do I know if the cycle is complete?
- After 8 days you can test the water to see if the cycle is complete, despite this method shortening the cycling time to half or even less, nature is unpredictable and only the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates will bring us certainty.
Test the water 24h after the JumpStart dose, the values should be 0ppm of ammonia , 0ppm of nitrites and the values of nitrates should be high, difficult to quantify how much because nitrates can be assimilated by the Bacteria, having these results congratulations the cycling of the aquarium is complete. 
If the test accuses ammonia and nitrites, even if it gives value to nitrates, the cycle is not yet complete and should maintain the normal dose of Jumpstart and wait, test 2 or 3 days later.
Attention: Tape tests are not as reliable as reagent droplets, so reading the color of the tape, there may still appear to be ammonia and nitrites, giving a false positive result.

The cycle is complete and now?
- Now your aquarium is ready to receive life and plants and enjoy it. However, you can maintain the dosage of JumpStart plus 2, 3 or more days, having the complete cycle does not mean at all having a mature aquarium and a super extensive and effective colony of bacteria.

Start by seeing the value of nitrates and make a TPA or more, in order to place the nitrates below 50ppm.

Plant the plants and start with 4/5 hours of light, the plants need time to settle and only then began to be metabolically more active.
Introduce some fish so that they start to feed and produce ammonia for their waste and unused food remains, opt for resistant fish and not for species that are known to be more sensitive and/or that prefer mature aquariums. Do not overfeed fish, it occurs at risk of ammonia spikes.

have a mature aquarium
- Your aquarium may be cycled and ready to receive life but is not mature. 
The maturity of the aquarium comes with time and can take 2, 3 months or more months to reach this state, which happens by having a strong, balanced and diverse bacterial colony. 
Maintain a good maintenance of the aquarium, good oxygenation of the water, do TPA's regularly and do not superfeed the fish.

By following these steps and using JumpStart, you will ensure safe and effective cycling for your aquarium. Remember that patience is the key, and each aquarium is unique!

Jumpstart dose
Daily dose - 5ml per 100L of water.
If you have a filter, as expected, with a high biological capacity, rich in biological media, you can place triple the dose at 100L in the 1st dose, that is, 15ml in 100L, then keep the daily dose of 5ml per 100L.
For aquariums with small, low-media filters, just do the daily dose.