Cycling Fish

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Khabbral

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What are some good fish to start cycling? Would Cardinal Tetra's be good? What about Angel Fish? Or Rummy Nose Tetra's? Are any of those good? What else would be good?
 
How about no fish? Fishless cycling is more forgiving & less work in the long run.

If you must do fishy cycling, I would suggest zebra danios. I know angels won't tolerate cycling well, & I don't think the tetras are too hardy either. Common fantail goldfish <but not the fancies like red caps> are OK too - but if you are keeping tropicals, you'll have to find a home for the goldfish after you are done cycling.
 
Pretty much anywhere! Look for household ammonia with the cleaning supplies (Walmart, hardware stores, grocery stores ..... ). Just make sure you get 100% pure ammonia, one without any soaps, perfumes, etc. Generally, the cheap - no-name brands is more likely to be 100% ammonia with nothing else added.

I also saw ammonia for cycling at one lfs --- but the price they charge is outrageous!
 
So what do I do? I just put some drops everyday and it should be done cycle with 2-3 weeks? It says to get some sort of bacteria to speed things up, if I get plants should it speed it up?
 
You don't really have to get any bacteria ... it is naturally occuring int he air, etc, and you will eventually grow the bacteria yourself using just the ammonia.

You can buy the bacteria - trade name Biospira - but that is only avialable in the US, and they prob can't ship it during winter <although I've heard of someone getting a supply to Calgary in the fall>. But at this time of year, if you try to ship live culture from the US, you'll just end up with expensive ice-cubes! :D Bio-spira is supposed to cycle your tank "instantly" and you don't need to go through the fishless method. You can add the fish within 24 hrs of adding bio-spira.

Another option is using bacteria from an established tank. I've using the seeding method 3 times now. I just keep a bag of gravel in my wet/dry filter so it is colonized with bacteria. Then when I need a QT or other tank setup, I just put that gravel in the new tank & transfer the bacteria. With enough bacteria transfer, I get only a mini-cycle (trace NH3, and a 2-3 day NO2 spike of 0.3), and my tank is cycled in under a week.

So if you have a friend with a healthy tank, you can "borrow" some of the bacteria - just squeeze some of the gunk out of an active filter <or if he is going to change filter anyway, the whole filter> and put that in your filter. You should speed up the cycling process significantly.

BTW I don't think plants will speed up cycling - the plants will use up some of the NH3/NO2 & prob slow things down.
 
jsoong, when you get a chance, can you read my post under "getting started" fresh & brakish..my user is "Tropic 27". I would really appreciate it..I never used a forum chat room before & I'm having a very urgent problem..I'm afraid to go home to a tank full of dead fish!
 
Tropic27 - It might be more visible <& you will get more responses> if you start your own thread ... Just hit the "new topic" button at the very bottom & type away!

For now, I'll reply in the other thread, just so we won't have too fragmented a discussion.
 
Good news canadian friends ! :D

I've just ordered some Bio-Spira through this guy !!
(I live in Montreal, Quebec)

http://www.fishstoretn.com/

$23.19 for 1 oz (enough to treat 30 G)
The guy told me that it would get shipped through priority mail. (To my mailbox)...

Hopefully im not going to end up with bacteria ice cubes !! :squarewink:
 
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