hi i have a 55G tank that i want to setup fresh.. but i don't wanna do the so many days of cycling the tank.. is my large sponge filter will make it easier for me? (used from the other tank) let say, if i have filled the tank with water, and put everything in like, heater, air pump.. and put in the large sponge filter (established from other tank, i think) how many days should i wait to introduce fish to the 55G tank? sorry for the bad english.. thank for reading!
setting up a new tank..
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depends on the fish you want to put in there because the tank will cycle anyway, just may not cycle as drastically. You may not get a bacteria bloom but the tank will still cycle. A friend of mine has cycled a new tank with old established filter using one of his 8inch jack dempseys, it did fine.
Get some cheap fish first and moniter the water params. If after a few weeks you have zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and are showing nitrate your tank is cycled. Do a waterchange and add the discus. Continue to moniter the params for the next several days and continue with water changes as discus like good water.
It's been my experience that discus are actually quite hardy, however I did just hear something I had never heard before. One of the reasons, if not the most important reason, for frequent water changes is that juvenile discus expel a chemical that stunts their growth. The guy that I was talking to said he has a friend who has had his discus tank on a constant water change since August and that his discus are over 12". Of course his water bill has been quite high.
I talked to a breeder, he would do 60% water changes every two days and his tanks were under stocked over filtered, bare bottom. He said they need very clean stable water or they will die.sunvalley aquarist;4175381; said:
I've never kept them myself.