steez
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I started up about 4 months ago with a 20g tank and listening to the people at Petco on how to start up the tank. I was told that I just needed the basic equipment, some water cleaner and fish.
I put it all together, and the next day went out and got myself 2 Dwarf Gourami's, 3 Neon Tetra's, 1 Pictis Catfish, chinese algae eater and a bichir eel. I had the setup for 2 months, all the fish lived. I would do about weekly waterchanges, using testing strips for the water, and feeding flakes.
I never intentionally knew or did a tank cycle. Like I had said, I listened to the people at the store and I thought they knew what they were talking about. Mistake.
After the 2 months or so, I started reading more about the hobby, learning and understanding it. I understand what Ph I need and how to control it, that you want 0 ammonia and nitrites, but are allowed a rough range of 20-40ish nitrates. That my water needs agitation for oxygen, and fish compatability.. etc etc.
Then I decided to upgrade, I wanted a bigger tank and fish. I decided on Oscar because they have a great personality, and a Pleco because they are good tank-mates with an oscar. That day I got my 55G tank, I asked another guy at the store about cycling my tank before putting the fish in it. He told me that if I just take all the gravel from my old tank and put it in my new one, and run the old filter w/the new one, that I would move the BB to the new tank, thus avoiding cycling.
So I filled my new tank with gravel and took all my fish out and moved the old gravel on top of the new stuff. Transferred all my fish, gifted the two Gourami's, pict cat and chinese algae eater to a friend after about 2 weeks. That's when I got my oscar and pleco, they was small but I knew the oscar would kill those tank mates, I left the Tetra's in the tank, as well as my eel, to let nature run it's course .
Now I just have my pleco, oscar and the eel. (the oscar and eel get along, it's weird).
I still have never done an intentional cycle on the tank, and it's been about 2 months. There was one outbreak of ick, a month back, I was able to cure it up by increasing temp to 81 and adding some salt. Also used "Ick Attack", a natural substance that doesn't require daily water changes. It's all gone, it's been gone, and my 3 fish have been nothing but happy and healthy as far as I can tell.
I am now running an API Nexx Canister filter, and a topfin 60 HOB filter. The canister is new but the Topfin has been in since I got the 55G tank.
Today was water change day.
LOG:
pH: 7.6
Am: .15ish ( I use the API Master Test Kit, it wasn't quite .25, but not pure yellow either)
NO2: .15ish (Same deal, it wasn't quite the color of 0, but not dark enough for the .25)
NO3: 20
I'm reading that to obtain best water quality (0 ammonia / 0 nitrite) you have to have a fully cycled tank. True?
I'm sorry for the book of text, I just wanted to get my whole story out so someone could tell me if I needed to take action and do a cycle, or is my tank cycled naturally?
TLDR: Do I need to cycle my tank?
I put it all together, and the next day went out and got myself 2 Dwarf Gourami's, 3 Neon Tetra's, 1 Pictis Catfish, chinese algae eater and a bichir eel. I had the setup for 2 months, all the fish lived. I would do about weekly waterchanges, using testing strips for the water, and feeding flakes.
I never intentionally knew or did a tank cycle. Like I had said, I listened to the people at the store and I thought they knew what they were talking about. Mistake.
After the 2 months or so, I started reading more about the hobby, learning and understanding it. I understand what Ph I need and how to control it, that you want 0 ammonia and nitrites, but are allowed a rough range of 20-40ish nitrates. That my water needs agitation for oxygen, and fish compatability.. etc etc.
Then I decided to upgrade, I wanted a bigger tank and fish. I decided on Oscar because they have a great personality, and a Pleco because they are good tank-mates with an oscar. That day I got my 55G tank, I asked another guy at the store about cycling my tank before putting the fish in it. He told me that if I just take all the gravel from my old tank and put it in my new one, and run the old filter w/the new one, that I would move the BB to the new tank, thus avoiding cycling.
So I filled my new tank with gravel and took all my fish out and moved the old gravel on top of the new stuff. Transferred all my fish, gifted the two Gourami's, pict cat and chinese algae eater to a friend after about 2 weeks. That's when I got my oscar and pleco, they was small but I knew the oscar would kill those tank mates, I left the Tetra's in the tank, as well as my eel, to let nature run it's course .
Now I just have my pleco, oscar and the eel. (the oscar and eel get along, it's weird).
I still have never done an intentional cycle on the tank, and it's been about 2 months. There was one outbreak of ick, a month back, I was able to cure it up by increasing temp to 81 and adding some salt. Also used "Ick Attack", a natural substance that doesn't require daily water changes. It's all gone, it's been gone, and my 3 fish have been nothing but happy and healthy as far as I can tell.
I am now running an API Nexx Canister filter, and a topfin 60 HOB filter. The canister is new but the Topfin has been in since I got the 55G tank.
Today was water change day.
LOG:
pH: 7.6
Am: .15ish ( I use the API Master Test Kit, it wasn't quite .25, but not pure yellow either)
NO2: .15ish (Same deal, it wasn't quite the color of 0, but not dark enough for the .25)
NO3: 20
I'm reading that to obtain best water quality (0 ammonia / 0 nitrite) you have to have a fully cycled tank. True?
I'm sorry for the book of text, I just wanted to get my whole story out so someone could tell me if I needed to take action and do a cycle, or is my tank cycled naturally?
TLDR: Do I need to cycle my tank?