General Cycling discussion.

[nfored]

There has always been a debat when doing your initial cycle, if you should do water changes to keep ammonia levels low, or just allow them build until they drop "Assuming Fishless cycle in this statement."

I was always a believer that you let it build so that the bacteria is cycled for larger volume. However in the past two crashes when I simply kept adding prime and letting the tank recycle it just kept building, however when I did major water change and dropped the ammonia level way down the re cycle process ended with in two days each time.

So have I had it wrong all this time? does the higher level of ammonia actually slow the process, and to build bigger colony you should cycle at lower levels of ammonia and then simply add more ammonia once the cycle completes to build the colony?

 

[piranhaman00]

not gonna lie...ive never cycled my tanks from like scratch. I have had about 15 set ups and everyone i seeded with already cycled material whether that be from one of my tanks or my lfs lol

 

[nfored]

I have only cycled once myself and I used the let it build method. I just putting it out there to see what peoples experince has shown them.

 

[jcardona1]

Seachem Stability and be done with it

 

[Joe Fish]

If doing a fish-less cycle I never do water change until cycle is complete
if I have to cycle with fish in the tank I do daily changes

 

[CanadianKeeper]

Prime is my best friend, I usually fill the tank toss a CRAP ton of that in let it sit a day and im golden ! Never had a loss yet. Except in salt I did a 2 month fishless cycle lol...

 

[tomomothy]

I dont think he was asking if theres a way to avoid cycling a tank, I think he was asking when doing it from scratch should you let it sit or do water changes, am I right? As of late I have only cycled a tank from previously used tank water so unfortunately I cant speak from experience. I did a cycle from an additive I cant even recall when I was a kid but I had no idea what I was doing and probably doomed my fish from the get go.

I would imagine that the more ammonia you have the easier the ammonia consumind bacteria would grow, but could it be possible that too high of an ammona (or pH) is harmful for the bacteria too? That might explain why a water change might speed things up. Dont know and dont want to test it on my tank but maybe this will help get the brain storm ball rolling.

 

[stopani88]

Seachem Stability and be done with it

+1 love this stuff