Cycling my new 450l tank
- Thread starter FishKid0978
- Start date
Hello; A short answer is yes It can be done. There are some devil in the details type things to consider.
Two things come to mind. One is the sponge filters may only have enough of the needed beneficial bacteria (bb) to deal with a few small fish and maybe not even one large fish. The sponges can "seed" the tank and if you add fish over a few weeks the bb can multiply. In other words do not add a lot of new fish all at one time.
The other thing is the bb need their particular nutrients (ammonia and nitrites) to be viable. If you already have the sponges keep them wet and to keep the bb alive they need a source of ammonia. You pretty much need to put the sponge filters and a small fish or two in the 4ft tank at the same time. If the sponges are in an established tank keep them there in the meantime.
Aquarium cycling links
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/nitrogen_cycle.html
http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html
Thank you very much for your advice. The thing is though it will be a oscar tank so do I look at getting a pleco or a different bottom feeder and putting it in there for a few weeks or buy some feederfish and just feed them to my oscar
Once again thanks for you advice, it's greatly appreciated
If they are young/small oscars the sponges may be adequate, if they are 15" adults the sponges may, or may not have a sufficient bacteria population. It depends on the amount and size of the fish they were used on to filter previously.
I wouldn't use feeders myself, I believe them to be disease carriers, and they may kill the oscars just as easily as an inadequately cycled tank.
I wouldn't use feeders myself, I believe them to be disease carriers, and they may kill the oscars just as easily as an inadequately cycled tank.
Hello; Back to some basics. 450 liters = about 119 gallons if I did the math correctly. How many Oscars do you hope to have?
While I do not much care for pleco's myself many do like them. I had a common pleco which got very large and was essentially a poop machine. That said you can have other plecos that are reported to not get so large.
Personally I would at least suggest a look at other bottom feeder. Something a large Oscar cannot eat. I also am not sure why a bottom feeder is really needed. Even with a bottom feeder the messy Oscar will mean you are the cleanup crew.
You can start with a baby Oscar or two and let them grow out. That way the bio-load will slowly increase as the Oscars grow and the bb will stay in dynamic balance with the bio-load.
Good luck
While I do not much care for pleco's myself many do like them. I had a common pleco which got very large and was essentially a poop machine. That said you can have other plecos that are reported to not get so large.
Personally I would at least suggest a look at other bottom feeder. Something a large Oscar cannot eat. I also am not sure why a bottom feeder is really needed. Even with a bottom feeder the messy Oscar will mean you are the cleanup crew.
You can start with a baby Oscar or two and let them grow out. That way the bio-load will slowly increase as the Oscars grow and the bb will stay in dynamic balance with the bio-load.
Good luck
Thanks,
I'm just planing on getting one oscar and if i can some silver dollars, I've done a bit of research on sd and apparently they can be skittish so I'm not sure
Are there any good tank mates youd suggest for and oscar
Thanks
K thanks
I probably won't get any tank mates just to ease up the bio load
Hello; Been a while since I kept an Oscar and when I did it wound up in a tank alone.
This is a guess so keep that in mind. Get a baby Oscar and some other fish as a tank mate. Let them grow up together and that may work for a time. If the tank mate is smaller than the Oscar it may someday get eaten. May be if the Oscar grows up with a tank mate it may not begin to look at it's buddy as a meal. Then again anything that will fit in a mouth may some day wind up there.