Cycle your tank w/fish & plants - Easy way

[kimo]

Cycle your tank the easy way with fish and plants:

You will be using only one type of Dechlorinator: AmQuel+
1 tsp/10g (or double dose for length of cycle). For any other type you will using 2 - 5x as much and just wasting money.

Level tank, add at least 1" of wet gravel (front) to 3 or 4" (back), plant all live plants, and fill tank w/dechlorinated water. Do not disturb gravel or it will cloud tank. Pour water into your hand or onto a plate placed on top of substrate.

Setup and start pumps, filters, airstones, heaters or whatever you'll be using.

Let water circulate for 24 - 48 hours to stabilize temps.

Depending on size of tank... 10g = 1 or 2 fish, 20g = 2,3 fish, 55g = 3-5 fish.
All fish are no more than 2.5 - 3.0" long. Use hardy fish - Platies, Danios, guppies, etc. Try not to use fish that grow large (Angels, Chiclids, etc)
Add the fish to a full tank. Forget about "fishless cycle": do it right and the ammonia, nitrite levels will spike but not get that high.

Keeping your dose of AmQuel+ at no more than 2x normal dose will not mess with any of your ammonia readings.

WAIT 3 days, then test for ammonia. If you have added many plants you may not see ammonia for 2 weeks if at all. If thats the case add 1 more fish and repeat.

WAIT:Test for ammonia, nitrite daily once it appears. The more plants you add the less your spikes will be.

Tank will be cycled once nitrates appear and ammonia, nitrites reach zero.

Symptoms of ammonia, nitrite poisoning: BRIGHT RED gills, fish darting but staying on surface, fish continously stay at surface gasping, fish jumping at surface (for fish that don't normally jump). Do 30% water changes daily until ammonia, nitrites come down to an acceptable level.

Starting off with very few fish will NOT lead to high spikes in ammonia, nitrite.
Give the tank plenty of time to cycle then add only 1 or 2 fish at a time. you won't have any trouble if you do things in slow motion. Refuse to add a high bio-load at any one time. It takes time for the tank to catch up.

Not always possible if you are just starting out or have only one tank in the beginning but always quaranteen your fish for 3 weeks or until they show no symptoms of disease before adding to main tank. Quaranteen all plants for at least three days to check for snails or other unwanted quests.

Best and cheapest thing to use for Q tanks are WalMart plastic clothes storage boxes. (3.5g - 40.0g for $3-6.00 ea.) Also great for holding fry.

[Zagz]

You are entitled to your opinion. However on this site you will find far more people advocate the fishless cycling method as far more humane, and consider it the right way. It takes no longer to do a fishless cycle. Plants of course help the cycle along, and seeded media from an established tank works even better. I personally run two filters on all my tanks at all times so that I can set up a QT tank or another tank, should I acquire one, without any cycling. I don't believe in cycling with fish for any reason.

[roka64]

I agree, I have had nothing but success with the fishless cycles. It gives me time to decide on what I plan on doing with the tank.

I do have to say, your paragraph about ammonia poisoning it true, there are also more symptoms, like gasping for air and death, stress, possibly leading to other diseases/infections.
Heck, I feel terrible when one of my critters die, even though it's not my fault. I'll stick to the newer, more humane ways.

I do agree with some of your ideas, such as adding fewer fish to let the bioload catch up (but I would do this in and already cycled tank).

[melosu58]

Originally Posted by kimo

Cycle your tank the easy way with fish and plants:

Add the fish to a full tank. Forget about "fishless cycle.

Not too good of advice. IMO Fishless is the way to go. More humane.

[kimo]

"Not too good of advice. IMO Fishless is the way to go. More humane."

When someone shows me scientific proof, maybe I might switch. I've done fishless cycles dozens of times. I've done with fish cycles thousands of times.

The scientific proof MUST be just that with all repeatable info backed up.
I do not rely on hearsay.

As for being "more humane"... both ways are humane if one keeps track of the ammonia, nitrite levels.

[SpeedEuphoria]

Originally Posted by kimo

"Not too good of advice. IMO Fishless is the way to go. More humane."

When someone shows me scientific proof, maybe I might switch. I've done fishless cycles dozens of times. I've done with fish cycles thousands of times.

The scientific proof MUST be just that with all repeatable info backed up.
I do not rely on hearsay.

As for being "more humane"... both ways are humane if one keeps track of the ammonia, nitrite levels.

Heres your proof:
Using a fishless cycle there is zero chance of fish dying from cycling.

In a cycle using fish there is a possibility of fish dying.

Its very simple logic

[kimo]

"In a cycle using fish there is a possibility of fish dying."

Pretty strange then, in forty years of fishkeeping I have never lost a fish due to cycling.

[Purrbox]

Another name for packing an aquarium full of plants and cycling with a very light bioload is Silent Cycling. It is a perfectly valid way to cycling an aquarium, and the best one in my opinion when done properly. It does require that you are able grow plants sucessfully and start out with enough fast growing plants (usually stem and/or floating) to be able to handle the fish waste.

When I recommend this method, I usually suggest that the plants be added at least 2 weeks before the fish so that they have sufficient time to get settled in their new aquarium and start growing well. This is especially important when plants are bought rather than being trimmed from other plants in the hobbiest's care and are more likely to be in poorer health from the stress of shipping and/or poor care.

I'd also recommend an extremely light bioload. While a 2.5" - 3" fish might be appropriate in a 55 gallon aquarium, a 10 gallon should have more like a single 1" fish. I think this is something that is obvious to the experiance fish keeper, but needs to be spelled out to the hobbiest that is just starting out to make sure they don't put a couple of 3" fish in a 10 gallon.

While this is now my favored method of cycling an aquarium, I still believe that Fishless Cycling has it's place. It's especially good for those that are new to aquariums and have no idea how to grow live plants or those that aren't even interested in keeping live plants. It also teaches good habits, like how to use a test kit should they run into problems later. Not to mention that they'll actually have the test kit on hand instead of having to run their water to the LFS or buy a test kit which may not be open the day they need it.

[saffikeagan]

Hi, a newbie sticking a nose in here. I understand that there are times when one would need to do a fish cycle, and I also understand the reasons behind cycling fishlessly. I do think that people who know what they are doing can cycle a tank with fish in it safely with no harm done. However, as a complete newbie who did lots of reading/research/etc even before starting, I still was misled by the neighborhood PetStores and LFS and completely baffled during the first few weeks. For this reason, I am completely happy that I chose to stick to my guns and not throw some fish in my tank like all the LFSs were telling me too without actually telling me then how not to kill them. I also know that there are a lot of people out there that do just throw fish into a tank, kill them, go buy more, kill them, and can't figure out why their tank water is always screwy.

I believe if the LFSs would encourage fishless cycling and refuse to sell live creatures to people who will kill them due to neglect and stupidity (like animal shelters and any respectable pet sellers will--who would sell a horse to someone who thought it was okay to lock it in a stall 24-7 and feed it only hay for its entire life). They would filter out people who were impulse buying and people who stuck with the fishless cycle would be on their way to being knowledgeable aquarists.

[new2betas]

Originally Posted by saffikeagan

I believe if the LFSs would encourage fishless cycling and refuse to sell live creatures to people who will kill them due to neglect and stupidity (like animal shelters and any respectable pet sellers will--who would sell a horse to someone who thought it was okay to lock it in a stall 24-7 and feed it only hay for its entire life). They would filter out people who were impulse buying and people who stuck with the fishless cycle would be on their way to being knowledgeable aquarists.

I have to say....I completely agree with this. Buying a fish or fishes should be no less important than any other creature. I don't know many places that would let you keep coming back to get a dog/cat if you had the reputation of killing them due to neglect or ignorance of their care.