Tank cycled or no?

[michael]

going to put 2 flower rays in this weekend and then more fish next sunday

 

[Pufferpunk]

Oh, I thought it was empty for a week before you added fish. I have "cycled" the same way when upgrading from smaller tanks. Moved the substrate & filtration over to the larger tank, wich contained all the bacteria that was supporting the fish in the smaller tank. Instant cycle.

 

[michael]

thanks for the votes

 

[Pufferpunk]

Good question!

 

[rallysman]

I think you're ok, but I would feed lightly after adding the rays.

 

[Pufferpunk]

When adding a large fish to a tank, you an always add Bio-Spira to be sure the extra bioload is covered.

 

[rallysman]

When adding a large fish to a tank, you an always add Bio-Spira to be sure the extra bioload is covered.

Good idea, or just squeeze the sludge out of the extra sponge filters that you should always have

 

[bigcichntwisted]

. Actually instant "cycle" still implies that a "cycle" of some sort took place, no matter how short or long it was. This is considered instantly seeded. Doing it this way, which many of us do, as PP mentioned above, eliminates the "cycle" & creates an immediate seeded environment. This is how a LFS, if they know what they're doing, sets up 50 tanks in the morning & have fish in them by evening, "instant seeding".

If you did as you say you did, which is the best way to do it if you can & you have plenty of flow, then you're not going to see much, if any, in the way of any parameter ups or downs, like you would w/ a non seeded, start from scratch approach cycle, cause you've immediately provided the necessary BB to create an established tank scenario, ie the necessary biofiltration needed to break dwn the nasties & for fish to survive.

Those who have never done what you described have never witnessed an immediate seeded tank scenario, so they would have no way of believing it can be done just that simple & just that immediate. Once anyone does this type of "immediate seeding", as you described you did, they don't ever set a tank up the same again. When going preseeded, seeing is truly believing in this case. With plenty of good preexisting BB & good flow to keep it so you could set up a 4000 gal tank, w/ 12-15' of fish in a day, seen it done twice at a LFS. Once you now how, it's the only way to go.

Many people & fish will benefit from this ? Great job mate.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Thanks for the correction on the wording. I always used "instant cycle" to describe things like this or using Bio-Spira.