RCS start and fish-in cycling questions (2.5g-5g)

[Lightning]

To start out, I did a 10g tank 2 years ago. I used sand, replaced it with eco-something, lots of live plants, a betta who died of fin rot because he was so excited and scratched up his fins on a rock, 3 pygmy corys (the cutest fish imo) to replace the betta which one died mysteriously and the others disappeared, and of course tons of snails and algae. This tank made me very stressed and sad especially after all of the hard work and waiting I put into it.

Now, I kinda miss doing the fish-thing. I'm wanting to do a little 5g or 2.5g (depending on what my mother-in-law has in storage) with gravel and plastic plants. I refuse to do live plants again. I'm interested in doing some tetras or even some RCS. Which brings me to my first question:

How well do RCS do in a non-planted tank? I'd love to see setups (pictures) of people who have small RCS tanks.

Second question:

How successful is fish-in cycling? I don't really care to hear from the fishless/humane cycling advocates because I was one but I'm not going thru that frustration again. I want to know about fish-in cycling and the people who have done it. I would like to hear the pros and the process (I know all about the cons please don't tell me any).

Thanks for your help!

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Welcome to AA!! I don't know a whole lot about RCS just that they reproduce a lot and basically clean up the bottom of the tank, so going off that I don't think live plants are needed but ill let someone who knows complement more on that.

As afar as the fish in cycling is concerned if its something you would really like to do I would do this...set up the tank and filter and such (if you can get already established filter media and or gravel you'll be in perfect shape for no cycle) and let it run for two days to a week with feeding the tank with a few flakes of food. After that add a hardy fish and keep up on the water changes id say with a tank that small about 80% daily for a few weeks. Just my opinion though as I'm sure people have had fish live in a new noncycled tank right from the get. Id prefer a cycle but to each their own.

 

[BigJim]

RCS actually eat algae. I see mine eating flakes or a dead fish on occasion, but they mostly pick things off the plants. RCS need something to hold onto or they'll stress out and die. I think they'd do better with silk plants than plastic ones.

Depends on what you're calling success. The only real pro to cycling with fish is you get fish earlier, but putting them through the cycle will shorten their lifespan. Fishless cycling is less work and is actually faster.

 

[DragonFish71]

As BigJim said, the RCS eat the algae and love hanging out on plants. Maybe you could go with easy live plants, like anubias, java moss, and java ferns instead? They are so easy, just tie them to a rock or log and let them go. They are low light, low tech plants. I have a 10g RCS tank, heavily plants, with black sand substrate. All I do for plant care is root pellets and Excel once a month and changed the lighting to the spiral CF bulbs that are equal to 40w regular bulbs. Simple, low tech and the plants thrive. (I don't know beans about all the high tech lighting, ferts and CO2)


As for cycling with critters, the ammonia and nitrite cycle is very harmful to them. Ammonia will burn the gills and other parts of them. If you don't keep ammonia at .25 or under during the process the critters will sadly not stand much of a chance.

I do a fishless cycle for all our tanks, but I do mine a bit differently than just adding pure ammonia and letting it go. I use either raw shrimp or dead feeders (hey, they're free right, might as well use 'em) Disease hasn't been an issue either, fyi. And I get a bottle of Seachem Stability or Nutrafin Cycle. Put the shrimp or feeders in a clean piece of pantyhose (fresh from the box, rinsed in water only. Detergents stick to the fabric) bury it under the substrate, add the Stability or Cycle and monitor the progress. If you can get some seed material from an established tank, that will help even more. Put it in another clean piece of stocking and let it rest on the gravel. Any extra bacteria helps.

I recently had to tear down and change substrate in our 40 (we thought the substrate was causing the pH issue). I put the plants and DW back in, filled the tank, added a few dead feeders and Stability, my tank was cycled and safe in two weeks. Yes, the plants and DW helped because I had kept them wet and they had bacteria already on them. I also used the same filter.

I'm not saying yours will cycle in two weeks, but I am saying this is another way to do it without causing stress on critters and it does work very well.