I understand the whole cycling process, but a quick question before a tank is cycled. Assuming you put new water in, treat it for chlorine, and it's heated properly, you should be able to keep fish alive? That is, until the ammonia builds up and kills them, right? Before the cycling process is completed, can I keep fish in there safely as long as I test for the ammonia daily? And then if it starts to build up I can do a water change? I know that might stall the cycling process a bit, but if you had to keep fish in there would it work?
Question about cycling...
- Thread starter ChiPerf
- Start date
You mean the risk would be if the ammonia builds up? Assuming the ammonia never built up, would there still be risk?
If the ammonia does not build up there would not be a risk - unless there are other water parameters that have to be kept perfect (again only for very sensitive fish, not the vast majority of aquarium fish).
Also, I have used SeaChem's Stability in the past when cycling a tank and never lost a fish (granted I was careful and didn't overload the tank). This might be something you want to look into.
Also, I have used SeaChem's Stability in the past when cycling a tank and never lost a fish (granted I was careful and didn't overload the tank). This might be something you want to look into.
Already run a full bottle of the stuff through the tank already. The tank seems healthy and every test I give it in the API freshwater kit looks good, just making sure I'm not missing anything and rushing the gun. I do know there are no ammonias, nitrites, or nitrates yet.
^^ you should begin see in nitrates soon if your tank is "cycled", but that being said with a 600 gallon tank it could take a bit (depending on stocking levels). My 300 took awhile to register 5-10ppm. Ive used Stability on every tank I've set up for the past 15 years or so with good results. Just keep monitoring and you should be good
Don't you have a 125 tank up and running? You can seed your 400 by cleaning your filter from the 125 in the tank water of the 400. I cycled my 240 in one day by cleaning the sponge filter of an ac110 in it. What you want is to get the beneficial bacteria in the tank to start processing the ammonia and turning it into nitrates. Since you have a sump on the 400 the bb should be able to colonize fairly quickly and you won't have to wait forever to add fish. In my case I had a leak and had to move my fish quickly to the new tank that I was just getting setup. I seeded the new tank and moved 6 orino pbass, texas cichlid, chocolate cichlid, severum, and 2 royal plecos. They all were ranging from 4”-7” at the time so it was a significant bio load, and I had no issues after putting them in the same day I seeded the new tank. This was around 5 months ago and all is still well.
This is for the 400 gallon. I have a few goldfish, bala sharks, tinfoil barbs, and now 8 gold/red severums. Everything but the severums has been in there for about two weeks or so. I added the stability stuff for 5 days when I added the water too. Nothing showing yet, but I want to make sure these severums are going to be safe. The 125 just has a FX5 on it, and with that bioload for all the fish in there I want to keep everything in that filter for now. I was planning on just waiting for the 400 to cycle slowly, but these severums just became available and I wanted to jump on them while they are still available. I have a HOB filter on my 55 that also has a FX5 on it too. Maybe I should take the filters from the HOB out for a while and put them in the 400 sump?
Any bacteria you could add to your sump would help speed things along. And you don't have to put the filter in the sump just rinse out the sponges in the tank or sump and put them back in the filter you took them out of. The mulm ( or stuff that is in the filter) contains bacteria that will help the tank cycle.