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View Full Version : Cycle over, now what to do?



Phildo
01-06-2004, 5:30 PM
My cycle is finally over after a 9 week period.
I did a fishless cycle with at least 10 shrimp in a 225 and plan to go fish only.
I put in a very cool 4" Clown Grouper today and removed all the black decaying shrimp pieces. How long do I wait until I put in another fish. I have read that it should be one fish a month when stocking but how will 1 grouper sustain the bacteria bed that 10 or more decaying shrimp established for one whole month? I ask this because one, I can get a real good deal on a nice size Tusk Wrasse at the LFS and would love to get it before someone else does. And two, I think by having only 1 fish in there for a month my bacteria bed may shrink and minicycle next time I add something.
I was considering making a water change in a couple of days since I haven't done one yet anyway and hopefully would make it good to add the wrasse in a week. Does this sound like a potential disaster or will it work?
Thanks for the help.

OrionGirl
01-06-2004, 5:33 PM
The benefit of fishless stocking is that you do establish a huge initial bacteri abed, capable of supporting essentially a fully stocked tank immediately. With FW, you can immediately, completely stock the tank--and I am not sure why you would not be able to do the same with SW. As long as the fish are compatible, I see no problem with adding the wrasse now.

Phildo
01-06-2004, 7:08 PM
Just the answer I was hoping for OnionGirl, thanks!!!!
Now off to convince my wife to let me drop more cash on another fish this week. :D