After thought: There are several ways to cycle a tank. None is really more "RIGHT" than the other if it gets the job done. I'm just expressing the ways that have worked for me in the past without spending a lot of time and money on the process.
How do you guys initially cycle your monster tanks?
- Thread starter JFishNerd
- Start date
Sorry we can't compare to your multi thousand gallon systems? You realize this is primarily a hobbyist site, right?
And if you go back and read you'll see I never said it takes exactly 7 days. That's just average. I've cycled tanks in 4 days and some have taken 9-10 days with the stuff. Still much faster than typical cycling.
If you think there's more than one way to cycle a system correctly, maybe don't jump on here and proclaim them as useless and a waste of money?
And if you go back and read you'll see I never said it takes exactly 7 days. That's just average. I've cycled tanks in 4 days and some have taken 9-10 days with the stuff. Still much faster than typical cycling.
If you think there's more than one way to cycle a system correctly, maybe don't jump on here and proclaim them as useless and a waste of money?
Putting aside the fact that not too many people in this discussion have to be concerned about cycling massive systems housed in public aquariums, the bottom line is Seachem Stability does in fact work, and in many instances can be very cost effective to the average hobbyist, especially if one already has a tank full of expensive fish that for whatever reason just had the bio beds in the tank go south on them.
Personally I have always seeded new set ups with established media, cheap, and very effective. Having said that I wouldn't rule out a product such as Seachem Stability, nor would I consider that particular bio bacteria in a bottle to be a waste of money. Unless perhaps in an emergency situation the potential loss of life only involves a handful of neon tetras.
Personally I have always seeded new set ups with established media, cheap, and very effective. Having said that I wouldn't rule out a product such as Seachem Stability, nor would I consider that particular bio bacteria in a bottle to be a waste of money. Unless perhaps in an emergency situation the potential loss of life only involves a handful of neon tetras.
Same principles apply to any size tank. The only time difference is due to size of the colony being established. I wasn't trying to throw out the big volume tanks as a point, just meerly stating that the suggested "go try it for yourself" method won't work for what I'm currently doing. I'm not jumping on here and proclaiming anything. Just stating what I have experienced.
Yes, there is more than one way... on a small home tank, a fishless cycle can be done in about the same time frame. Why spend extra money on something that takes just as long? I personally don't see the need in doing so. Even starting adding stock slowly without spending money on those types of additives will get you there as fast, and much more stable.
Yes, there is more than one way... on a small home tank, a fishless cycle can be done in about the same time frame. Why spend extra money on something that takes just as long? I personally don't see the need in doing so. Even starting adding stock slowly without spending money on those types of additives will get you there as fast, and much more stable.
And me. If you can cycle a tank without additives when you don't have established media to seed the filter, I'd really like to know about it. Bottom line is, Seachem Stability works. I don't know what's in it and what it does, but my test kit and my sensitive wild caught discus will tell you it works.
I never said without anything... I said fishless (no fish in the tank). My point in this thread is you don't need to buy 'off the shelf' bottled products. There are cheaper ways that are proven.
I'm not going to get drawn into an arguement here.
I'm not going to get drawn into an arguement here.
Ok I wanted to add what happened last night to show why I came up with my way of fast tracking a tank. While the tank I set up and put fish in last night is only a 4 ft 60g I would do the same with a much larger tank and have done so in the past.
So I checked my email at 11pm and there is a request for me to come pick up some fish that I offered to rehome for a lady 3 weeks ago. She is urgent that I come get them asap because 1 of the 5 "big fish" died and she is worried about the other 4. She has no idea what is wrong with them other than one of them has white spots on it.
So without knowing anything other than they are in a 55g and they are big, I head over to get them. I took pics of the fish before I dropped them into the 65g. I asked her if I could take the filter a aqueon double screen hob filter and use it for a couple of days on the tank as it would be best for these fish if they had the same filter on a fresh tank. I also took 5g of the existing tank water.
When I set the tank up I pulled 30g of water from my existing 65g that is beside it. I pulled out some of the driftwood from the 65g and put it in the tank. I added 20g of fresh water and the 5g of water from the buckets. I also added 4 caps of prime to the tank. I also put 2 fresh bags of chemi pure into the filter to assist with any spikes. Chemi pure is another agent that I use in the fast tracking on fish tanks.
Here are the pics of the fish and the tank.
his eye is a little messed up hopefully it will clear.
this one has 3 or so white spots on him about 1/5 the size of a round eraser on a pencil end, no idea what they are.
I left the water level low on the tank to make sure lots of O2 gets exchanged and to make sure it gasses out.
Now here is the issue. Simply because I offer a rescue/ rehome service I sometimes get calls like this. Firstlly, there is no way that I am putting fish that have come out of a tank where the water is the color of green tea into one of my tanks as I have no idea what they are carrying and do not want to lose my other fish. So the only solution is to bang a tank together and get the fish in the tank asap. These guys went into the water 5 minutes after I filled the tank as they were definitely gasping in the buckets after the 20 minute ride home. My call on this is that they are much worse off being left in the 55g they were in, even worse off sitting in a bucket with 2.5 g of the dirty water they have been living in. So the best action for these guys is to put them in the prime treated water asap.
When I got done last night it was pretty late, so I will be taking some sand from my tanks here at work to put in the tank tonight.
While people may not agree with my methodology in how I fast track tanks when I have to. It works.
So I checked my email at 11pm and there is a request for me to come pick up some fish that I offered to rehome for a lady 3 weeks ago. She is urgent that I come get them asap because 1 of the 5 "big fish" died and she is worried about the other 4. She has no idea what is wrong with them other than one of them has white spots on it.
So without knowing anything other than they are in a 55g and they are big, I head over to get them. I took pics of the fish before I dropped them into the 65g. I asked her if I could take the filter a aqueon double screen hob filter and use it for a couple of days on the tank as it would be best for these fish if they had the same filter on a fresh tank. I also took 5g of the existing tank water.
When I set the tank up I pulled 30g of water from my existing 65g that is beside it. I pulled out some of the driftwood from the 65g and put it in the tank. I added 20g of fresh water and the 5g of water from the buckets. I also added 4 caps of prime to the tank. I also put 2 fresh bags of chemi pure into the filter to assist with any spikes. Chemi pure is another agent that I use in the fast tracking on fish tanks.
Here are the pics of the fish and the tank.
his eye is a little messed up hopefully it will clear.
this one has 3 or so white spots on him about 1/5 the size of a round eraser on a pencil end, no idea what they are.
I left the water level low on the tank to make sure lots of O2 gets exchanged and to make sure it gasses out.
Now here is the issue. Simply because I offer a rescue/ rehome service I sometimes get calls like this. Firstlly, there is no way that I am putting fish that have come out of a tank where the water is the color of green tea into one of my tanks as I have no idea what they are carrying and do not want to lose my other fish. So the only solution is to bang a tank together and get the fish in the tank asap. These guys went into the water 5 minutes after I filled the tank as they were definitely gasping in the buckets after the 20 minute ride home. My call on this is that they are much worse off being left in the 55g they were in, even worse off sitting in a bucket with 2.5 g of the dirty water they have been living in. So the best action for these guys is to put them in the prime treated water asap.
When I got done last night it was pretty late, so I will be taking some sand from my tanks here at work to put in the tank tonight.
While people may not agree with my methodology in how I fast track tanks when I have to. It works.
Hello; To Chefjamesscott, Some times you have to do things like this. I usually try to avoid chemical additives in the normal run of things, but in a short time situation this seems to be a workable plan. Having the chemicals on hand, prime and chemi cure, for such a situation was a plus. Is there anything else you keep around to help with these issues?
I keep a gallon jug of ProForm C on hand if I find I run into a scenario where that is needed.
http://www.koipondcentral.com/koi_health/proformc.html
I also keep on hand Neomycin because I find it is something that I can administer orally to a fish.
http://www.petstore.com/Aquarium_Pr...sh-Aquarium_Products-AY07009-AQMEFB-2-vi.html
I have a few other things that I have in my fish stocks that I do not remember the name of. I have them packed away till I have my basement finished.
I also use the temp/ salt trick for ich.
http://www.koipondcentral.com/koi_health/proformc.html
I also keep on hand Neomycin because I find it is something that I can administer orally to a fish.
http://www.petstore.com/Aquarium_Pr...sh-Aquarium_Products-AY07009-AQMEFB-2-vi.html
I have a few other things that I have in my fish stocks that I do not remember the name of. I have them packed away till I have my basement finished.
I also use the temp/ salt trick for ich.
