pip walters

Not sure what this message is, lol. What do you think about my nitrates? Do you think I have somehow lost my cycle?

Thanks for you message lovecatfish
I'm not against fishless cycling particularly, jsut seems a ridiculously slow process and that is due to the massive amount of ammonia added!

After six weeks, I think you will be fine, lol. I have seen fish survive in conditions you wouldn't put your mother-in-law in.... and they grow! I once read an article about a breeder of Apistogramma spp. dwarf cichlids who used no filtration at all... he just performed small water changes every couple of days. Granted, there were few fish in the tanks.

Another one I saw was of an asian discus breeder whose tanks had a 3 inch layer of mulm on the bottom and who had to put a net into the tank to move the fish to the front of the glass just so the reporter could see them - the water was so murky. They had no filters, just water running through constantly from the nearby river. They were some of the biggest most colourful discus I have seen! And they bred thousands of them.

Hi pipwalters. I just read ur post on the forum about fishless cycling- is it nesscesary? I would just like to tell you, you are not alone! I wonder how important it is, i change my water 3times a week, 30% just to make sure. But i have 'tested' this theory with my 10gallon. I have 2crayfish and a chiclid which iam relocating in a weeks time. I have had them survive for 1 half months without cycling at all! Just dechlorinator, anti-ich( for prevention) and aquarium salt(10g). Oh and also some zeolite. Iam slightly sceptical right now though, because its only been 6weeks and maybe the problems have not starting to show up, i hope they won't though! But most important in aquariums are pH, kh, oxygen and diseases in my opinion.