I've never done a fishless cycle before because I've always used media from established tanks to start up a new tank. My question is: When you do a fishless cycle, aren't you able to fully stock your tank when the cycle is finished, or do you still have to add fish a little at a time. It was my understanding that you could add all of your fish at the same time.
Even after a fishless cycle you are better off addin gonly a few fish at a time. It is hard to know just how large your bacteria collony is and it may not quite be ready for a full load. However, if you really want to add more than one or two fish (if you want to establuish a school or someting) , you might be able to push it to 3-5 if they are small fish. It is better to be safe than sorry though.
I tried fishless cycling once...... never again. Took forever to get the nitrites to go down and didn't really gain anything. I have about 60 tanks going now so I can usually rob a sponge or filter cartridge from another tank to get it established. I have yet to have any "new tank syndrome" problems.
As to stocking levels, it depends on the method of cycling. If you're using the dead shrimp method of similar, I'm not sure how heavy you could stock. If you're using ammonia to cycle the tank, the more ammonia you use, the more bacteria will be colonized. I'm sure there is a limit to the amount but not really sure what that is. It's been a couple years since I tried it and don't remember how much I was even adding. Kyle
After an ammonia based fishless you can stock to a reasonable level immediately. Its one of the benefits of a fishless cycle. That, and no dead fish.
Stocking incrementally after the cycle is over only causes a die-off among your carefully cultivated bacteria. No benefit there.
If you follow the guidelines and don't overdose on ammonia and don't have a pH crash during the cycle you shouldn't have trouble with unending nitrites. Dose to 4 or 5 ppm and then cut back to 2 or 3 ppm when Nitrite appears. Any extra is plenty, a lot extra doesn't help and may slow things down. Keep an eye on your KH and pH during the cycle: a crash can cause set backs.
It is best to add in about 2-7 per week after a fishless cycle.
2 (or a few more if small) per week is easier because it allows you to keep track of the ones that are going in and any disease being introduced from them. If you just get all of them you are quite likley to get a diseased one in your tank that will probably affect all your fish because they are stressed from being moved. If you add them slowly it allows the fish to become more settled and so the disease from newer ones will not spread to them because their immune system will be stronger.
Stocking incrementally after the cycle is over only causes a die-off among your carefully cultivated bacteria. No benefit there.
This is true but adding slowly will just slowly top up your bacteria anyway. You may get a little amonia/nitrite increase but not much at all. And certainly much much smaller ammounts than you would get if there wasnt enough bacteria for a full stock of fish straight away.
It is best to add in about 2-7 per week after a fishless cycle.
2 (or a few more if small) per week is easier because it allows you to keep track of the ones that are going in and any disease being introduced from them. If you just get all of them you are quite likley to get a diseased one in your tank that will probably affect all your fish because they are stressed from being moved. If you add them slowly it allows the fish to become more settled and so the disease from newer ones will not spread to them because their immune system will be stronger.
That doesn't make sense to me. One benefit of fishless cycling is that you can stock with a full bioload of fish immediately. If all the fish you buy (at once) come from the same LFS, then chances are, if there is disease, they already all share a risk of carrying it before they reach your tank (and hopefully your LFS has some sort of guarantee on their fish.) To add fish gradually means that you will lose some of the biofilter you worked so hard to develop, plus with each batch of fish you add there is a risk of introducing disease...which may affect your current livestock regardless of how strong their immune systems might be. To avoid that you would need to quarantine each new addition fish before adding to the main tank.
One benefit of fishless cycling is that you can stock with a full bioload of fish immediately. To add fish gradually means that you will lose some of the biofilter you worked so hard to develop, plus with each batch of fish you add there is a risk of introducing disease...which may affect your current livestock regardless of how strong their immune systems might be. QUOTE]
See, that's how I understood fishless cycling with ammonia, that you could add all of your fish at once, otherwise, some of your bacteria will die off.
Never done fishless cycling my self, but here is my line of thinking. Usually ammonia and nitrites levels are very high compared to fishy cycle, so the bacteria would need to be at pretty high levels to get ride of all the stuff, espically if you keep adding a bit more ammonia every day. If you only added 1 or 2 fish at first, then the reduction of the ammonia produced would cause some of the bacteria to die off and cause you to have to add fish slowly again. It shouldn't take too long stock it up though, once a tank has been established, it doesn't take long for the bacteria to increase to account for the new fish load.
You may also want to make your decision based on what fish you are adding. You may want to let some fish species establish themselves before adding different kinds. But that totally depends on the combination of fish you want.
I fishless cycled my 29 gallon following the directions that are posted in one of the stickies on this site - after the tank cycled I pretty much fully stocked my tank and had no problems with any ammonia or nitrite spikes. SO much easier than fishy cycling (used that method for my 2 10-gallon tanks) did water changes every single day using that method.
