Fishless or Fish Cycle?

[TomK2]

You have identified the problem of fishy cycling, - what do you do with the danios after you are done?

1 - buy another tank and use them to cycle the new one
2 - Keep them, care for them out of grattitude
3 - return them to the LFS

I would think that you could start with 3 danios, and after two weeks, if there still is no ammonia or nitrite, you might be able to add another one or two (but then no more). Platies are also hardy cycle fish, you could also use 3 of those. If you have access to FW biomedia that has been colonized from an established tank, you could really speed things up. Remember, my philosophy of using fish to cycle is to go slow, reeeaaalll slow, so that there is no stress on the fish. If you want speed, I would use fishless methods. Just because the fish are hardy, doesn't mean its OK to subject them to high ammonia levels, IMO.

 

[Guest]

my point was, i did it the hard way with the danios.. but if you know some one who has a nice big established tank, do it the easy way and throw your filer on their tank for a week, im sure they won't mind the extra filtration!!!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I agree with Ashley. Put your filter on someone elses tank for a week or two. That will jumpstart the cycle. I put mine on one of the other tanks for 6 weeks and never had a slight amount of ammonia in the tank after immediately adding 12 fish. I'm just not a big fan of cycling with fish. Most people don't like to look at only a few fish and end up getting more than they should. Plus, if the levels get too high it can burn the gills of your fish.

 

[TomK2]

zacdl -
you said you have access to colonized FW bio-media in an earlier post? That changes everything. If you can seed your filter with a lot of well colonized biomedia, you could go directly to a low level of the fish you want, or do a rapid fishless cycle. Having a quality seed is almost like running the new filter on an established tank. My low bio-load advice is for those who don't have access to colonized biomedia, and don't want to use a fishless method.

 

[TomK2]

I'm just not a big fan of cycling with fish. Most people don't like to look at only a few fish and end up getting more than they should.

*Sigh* All too true. Just monitor the Getting started Forum, and that will be obvious. Fish cycling is not for the impulsive, impatient, undisciplined types.

Fishyfanatic - you have run a new filter on an established tank for 6 weeks, and then added 12 fish with no spikes? What kind of bioload did those 12 fish represent? 50% of planned full stocking level? More? Less? Just curious. I would guess that you could go right to 50% with no problem.

 

[zacdl]

Yea the LFS is giving me some media (although both the guy and me forgot about it when I just got back from there )

He reccomended 4 Tetras (Reddish color) Ill try to look them up or take pics to get you guys exactly the species I got.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Tom- I ran the filter on a 150 gal tank stocked with African Cichlids for 6 weeks. I then moved the filter to a 55 gal tank and added 6 Cories and 6 Serpae Tetras. I could have moved it over earlier, but I just wasn't able to locate the fish that I wanted right away. I plan on adding 6 Rummynose Tetra's, 6 Hatchets, 1 Bristlenose Pleco, and 4 Blue Rams. The Rams won't come for some time. The rummies I will actually be getting next Friday. The tank will have been set up for three weeks and over any kind of spike that may have occured. The hatchets will be about 3 weeks after the rummies have taken up housing in the tank. I'm playing it safe on not adding too many fish too soon so a spike doesn't occur. I tested the water twice a day during the first few days and never had any kind of ammonia or nitrite reading. The filter was pretty much established from running on a tank that had such a high bio-load.

 

[TomK2]

Wow, You are the cautious type, no? I would have guessed that you could have stocked the tank much heavier after running the filter for 6 weeks on an established tank. My intuition tells me that you could probably get away with going right to a 50% level, but I have no experience to back that up (I have started many tanks from scratch, however). Better to be cautious, I suppose.

I finally get to set up a filter from seed next week, when I do a 10 gal planted tank. I am planning on going right to 6 full size danios (if I can catch them all) with a heavily seeded aquaclear HOB. I will fill the aquaclear 20 basket with floss and ceramic noodles from a canister filter that has been running for 9 months, so I am counting on an instant filter. Then if all is going well for two weeks, the danios go back to the main tank and I will buy some neon tetras. Yeah, I know 6 danios in a new 10 gal tank is a bit much, but with the heavy seeding of the filter my intuition tells me that I wont see any nitrogen blips. Only one way to find out for sure, and If I am wrong they can always go back to the main tank sooner than planned. Guess I am the cautious type too, or else I would go right to my tetras and skip the danio phase.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I was actually going to add the Hatchets at the same time. But after researching, the remaining fish all need an established aquarium. I figured that I would let it run for 3 weeks for the bacteria to really set in on the decor and such before adding more. The Hatchets and Rummies are really sensitive to Nitrites. And the Rams really need a nicely established tank. I didn't want to chance killing the fish because I added too many at once. Thankfully I waited beacuse I had a pH fluctuation during the first 24 hours. It is stable now, but I know if I had the Hatchets or Rummies in there, they surely would have kicked the bucket. But the cories and Serpae's handled it quite well. I did lose one cory, but that was before the pH fluctuation. I think that was more because he was pretty small when I got him. He was the runt of the offspring. I have already taken off of work to go get the fish. Isn't that sad that I have to take off work for fish shopping. I planned my vacation days around my stocking. HAHA. Ok, I really am an addict. I tend to be cautious because I have been given some really bad advice by lfs employees. I no longer trust them. This is a tank that I've been planning since January and I want everything to go off without a hitch. So far so good.