giving up on fishy cycle...

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canucks

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Feb 10, 2003
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Well, I think I've successfully made myself another statistic. Today I've decided to start a fishless cycle. Please don't think ill if me, but I killed quite a few little neons in my stupidity and currently have 4 unhealthy ones in an uncycled "quarantine" 10g. So, I have a few questions. I'll start from the beginning...We bought the tank, 20g, set 'er up and got some neons the next day. Then I noticed what I thought was ich (I've kept fish before when I was a teen, but wasn't educated at all about cycling etc.), so I put some medication in the tank called "Clout", it worked for the ich, a couple fish still died, but the leftovers seemed to have fin rot or fungus. We started to get frustrated...Anyways, this morning, (the day after the last treatment) I did a 75% water change,(50% was recommended by the med.), took the remaining ill fishies out and have decided to go with a less stressful fishless cycle. But I'm wondering if the parasites and possible fungus will be able to survive without any hosts? I know some parasites can be extremely resilient (sp?). Also, there are some plants- a clump of cabomba, 3 amazon swords, a small java fern, some kind of anubias, I think, and a peice of bogwood. I have seeded the tank with some water (1L or 1/4 US gallon) from my turtle tank, as well as conditioning the water with AquaPlus and Cycle, (both by Hagen). Does this all sound acceptable for a fishless cycle? Should I worry about possible leftover "nasties", or will the nitrogen cycle take care of that? Thanks a bunch for your replies,
Another sad statistic, Kat
 

pinballqueen

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I'm sorry to hear about your loss, your story is very familiar.

For starters, I'm not sure exactly how much good it will do to seed a tank with water. Maybe if you threw in a few of the decorations or some of the gravel instead?... Most of your bacteria lives on solid surfaces rather than in the water itself.

I've noticed that most of the plant people don't recommend using plants during a fishless cycle. The plants will absorb the ammonia before the bacteria can (greedy buggers), so maybe you should move the plants out temporarily, maybe to your turtle tank or the holding tank with your neons, until you get done with the cycling process. Incidentally, your 10g will cycle at the same time as the other if you can keep the fish alive...

Neons are not good candidates for fishy-cycling. I'm sure you've learned that by now the hard way.... they are way too delicate to withstand the spikes in water quality.

Read up on fishless cycling (I'm not an expert on it, I've never done it...), and keep us updated! You're not a statistic, you're a beginner with a common beginner problem.

Hope this helps!
 

Bantam

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Aug 9, 2002
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sorry to hear about your losses :(

adding water from your established tank won'r really make any difference because the good bacteria are in the gravel, filter etc of a tank not the water.

i'm not 100% sure about the nasties. i really can't see ich surviving the length of a cycle without a host especially if you keep the water warm. i'm not sure about anything else. i suppose it depends exactly what's in there. i'm sure someone will be along shortly to give you expert advice.
myself i would be tempted to take the opportunity to thoroughly clean the tank. just make sure you rinse everything VERY thoroughly if you use any disinfectant etc.

regards
craig
 

famman

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Aug 16, 2002
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The clout would probably kill anything that survived outside of a fish. It also probably killed your bioculture.
Congrats for deciding on a fishless cycle, definately the way to go! Frequent innoculation via gravel is the best way to speed a cycle along.
I'm sorry for your loss, but patience learned the hard way is often the best kind. Those poor neons sacrificed so that your later fish can come into a good home. Their life had purpose.
The really cool thing about a fishless cycle, is if you follow the directions well, you can fully stock the tank when the cycle is complete. Do your research now, getting together the right mix of fish can be difficult all at once.
Remember, if you get your fish but miss finding a few, add the new ones later only a few per week.
good luck
:)
 

canucks

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Thanks so much, Famman, for giving me the positive side to the deceased neon situation. I really was feeling crappy about that. You are absolutely right and now I feel much better...thanks :). Thanks also to PBQ and Bantam. I have placed a 1' peice of bogwood from the turtle tank into the aquarium and removed the plants. It looks really boring now, but it's kinda cool to think that there's still stuff going on in there. And how exciting to know that we can fully stock the tank when it's ready!!!! :D (though I do plan to do some research on it). Thanks again so much for your replies!
Kat
 
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