The Reason for cycling a tank is to build BB for the Bio Load...

[Juxtaroberto]

To me, his question asked was the reason to cycle a tank, like you had a choice to cycle it or not. My statement was meant to say that the tank will cycle regardless if you want it to or not. I'm well aware of how the tank cycles and the result of putting fish in a tank while it goes through the cycle, but its very hard to prevent a cycle given the said tank has water flow and a place for bb to grow.

Ah, I see.

Yes, the cycle will happen whether or not you plan to do it or not. You should just get it done before you put your fish in, not during.

 

[creepyoldguy]

Ah, I see.

Yes, the cycle will happen whether or not you plan to do it or not. You should just get it done before you put your fish in, not during.

Yup, lack of better wording on my part, but we think the same!

 

[skillzizzo]

There is no guarantee that there is any bacteria inside the bottle. These bacteria are aerobic, eventually they'd suffocate within that closed bottle. Not to mention there isn't a constant supply of ammonia. They'd have to find a way to keep the bacteria in some kind of suspended animation, and while some bacteria and viruses can "shut off" when conditions are less than optimal, the nitrifying bacteria in our tanks can't (otherwise canister filters wouldn't go toxic after a few hours of not running).

If you're starting a new tank, you just need an established filter to speed things up. Don't transfer any of the old water, there's no point in that, unless the nitrates are so high that your fish will die of shock when experiencing clean water. Just start anew, you're just putting nitrates into your tank.

If you're simply moving all the same fish from one tank to another, you can definitely just fill the new tank up with same temp water, put the established filters on it, put the same fish into the new set up, and everything should go as planned. There might be a tiny hitch in ammonia (because the old tank had BB all over the tank walls, decorations, gravel, etc), but the majority of the BB should be in the filters, simply because this is the area with the most influx of waste (unless you have a dirty gravel bed).

If you're trying to start a brand new tank with new fish, then you can use media from an old tank, but you still have to wait for the BB's numbers to reach high enough amounts for your planned stock.

I like the way this responce was worded. And i have deffinetly on many occasoins. Took my stock from say a 75 and added them to 135's or 240's with just switching the filters from the smaller tank over to the larger tank, and placing every ounce of substrate from my old tank to the new tank. With the same fish from old tank to new tank. And never had any spikes or problems and never had a fish act weird of die from it. Just them swimming around like crazy enjoying there new living quarter. Allso oviously adding more new filtration to the bigger tank. And after a month or so i just take the filter from the smaller tank back of the bigger tank after the new ones have been plenty establised. And i have used the quick aquarium start prodects plenty of times when i was younger and beleived what i read. And never had any problems with them either.

 

[Yanbbrox]

Ok this is how I cycle new tanks, been a while :-(

a: fill up new tank with waste water from other tanks from water changes.
b. when full(can take a bit) fire everything up so you are looking a dirty tank when the lights are on.
c. (depending on the tank size) leave for a week.
d. add this tank to your current water change schedule a week later, water change the dirty water away, this will seed everything.
e. add fish slowly once clear, this will keep any bb transferred going.
f. It's never gone wrong but I always use a couple of 'tester fish(these outlive everything you want to stock)' even if params are fine.

 

[Mastiffman]

This is Straight from API's website. Any "Reserch" would tell you that Bacteria "Can" lay dormant for years!

Link: CLICK HERE

Each teaspoonful of Stress Zyme contains 300 million bacteria. These bacteria are in a dormant state and become active when added to the aquarium. Stress Zyme has a five year shelf life and does not require refrigeration. Stress Zyme is effective in freshwater and marine aquariums.

Don't aqauriums continually cycle? Just not at the same level as in the beginning because fo the lack of BB?

There are small traces of BB in the water column. Not as much as is needed UNLESS you are taking water from an established tank while syphoning the substrate as I did. As well as Adding the BB and the established filters there should be planty of BB to keep the tank from cycling at all. Tanks only cycle to establish enough BB. If you add enough in the beginning, the tank shouldn't even cycle....

 

[Bderick67]

If your moving two established filters, "An FX5 and a Fluval 404", there is no need for bottled bacteria. Just don't go crazy with adding new fish and test the water daily to make sure all is good.

I don't even like the idea of bottle bacteria because they are free floating. I would much rather have the bulk of my bacteria colonies living in the bio media of the filters. With the free floating bacteria, what happens when you do a 50% water change?

 

[Laticauda]

There's no use in using the old tank water. This is a very old misconception. There is very little beneficial bacteria in the water column itself. The only reason (as previously stated) to use old water is if you have very high nitrAtes and it would shock the fish to move them to clean, fresh water. However, you should never let your nitrAtes be above 40 (even lower is preferred) so this shouldn't even be a problem.

 

[SCGeordie]

There are a multitude of threads on this forum from people (including myself) who have done a 'first cycle' on a new setup using Seachem Stability, and most who have used it according to the instructions (to the letter) swear by it. A fishless cycle in 8 days cannot be put down to luck (that is how long it took to cycle a 40b I recently setup).
To each his own, but please don't right-off someone else's method of doing something just because it's not the same as yours, as long as the end result is the same - a cycled tank with a good base of established bacteria and 'happy fish' - then no-one is wrong.
I do think one thing is true nowadays however, as Juxtaroberto said "There just isn't any point making a fish suffer when there are other methods." just because a Zebra Danio may survive an Ammonia/Nitrite spike better than another fish doesn't mean we have to subject it to such. As a former rugby player (at school) I might survive a kick in the teeth better than someone else (cos it happened more than once) doesn't mean I enjoyed it!

 

[Mastiffman]

There's no use in using the old tank water. This is a very old misconception. There is very little beneficial bacteria in the water column itself. The only reason (as previously stated) to use old water is if you have very high nitrAtes and it would shock the fish to move them to clean, fresh water. However, you should never let your nitrAtes be above 40 (even lower is preferred) so this shouldn't even be a problem.

Just so you (as I mentioned it Before!) using established tankwater IS better than tap water Especially IF it's Removed from the Established Tank, BY Syphoning the Established Substrate Sucking up a Ton of BB during the process! You tell that you have the good stuff when it's a light tan color and not Bulky Brown.

I've been doing it this way for years! I've never Lost fish with this process!

By the way this is a 180gal.

 

[creepyoldguy]

This is Straight from API's website. Any "Reserch" would tell you that Bacteria "Can" lay dormant for years!

Link: CLICK HERE



Don't aqauriums continually cycle? Just not at the same level as in the beginning because fo the lack of BB?

There are small traces of BB in the water column. Not as much as is needed UNLESS you are taking water from an established tank while syphoning the substrate as I did. As well as Adding the BB and the established filters there should be planty of BB to keep the tank from cycling at all. Tanks only cycle to establish enough BB. If you add enough in the beginning, the tank shouldn't even cycle....

Aquariums cycle once, its called the nitrogen cycle and suggest that you seriously read up on it.

Of course API will tell you their product will work. There are also a lot of otc weight lifting supplements that say they will up your bench by 50%. Does it work? NO.