fish cycling or fishless cycling...
- Thread starter Missionfan
- Start date
There are no cons to fishless cycling imo. No fish are harmed or stessed and the end result is the same.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
When I need to cycle a tank quickly, I add a whole bunch of aquarium plants to the tank, and then add fish. The plants have lots of beneficial bacteria on all of their surfaces. The plants also use up any ammonia given off by the fish. It works. Have been doing it for years and never lose any fish.
Hate to bring facts in to the mix, but it is a long-lasting myth that plants use ammonia. They don't. They use nitrate. However, your approach is good in bringing surfaces covered in bacteria into the new tank.
I always cycle with ammonia, not fish. However, I am currently in a stuck nitrite phase in a 110 gal, so I put a few fish in to see if that would bump the process somehow.
I can think of no reason to go fish-cycle. Unless you're just too impatient or are in a situation where you HAVE to put fish somewhere.
I always cycle with ammonia, not fish. However, I am currently in a stuck nitrite phase in a 110 gal, so I put a few fish in to see if that would bump the process somehow.
I can think of no reason to go fish-cycle. Unless you're just too impatient or are in a situation where you HAVE to put fish somewhere.
I always keep a couple of sponge filters running in a few tanks. When I need to start a new tank I just put one or two depending of course on the size of the tank, add some declor to the water and go. I can't remember when I had to start a tank from scratch. You could also get some aged filter media from a friend or the LFS and use that to jump start the process. Always test the water before adding any fish and keep the bio-load low initallly so you don't overwhelm the ability of the bacteria to convert the waste.
Plants actually use ammonium (NH4). In most aquatic environments ammonia (NH3) is quickly converted into ammonium (NH3 + H20 <-> NH4 + OH. The process will slow down a bit if your pH is above 9 or your water temperature is very high.
I'm going to use the method of using sponge filters when I set up my 125 in Dec. I'll put 3 large sponges in my current 75 till then to build bacteria. I'll also take an established filter off the 75 to start up the 125.
