Another question...cycling
- Thread starter katana1200
- Start date
Yeah, I've tried fishless cycles on tanks with varying amounts of plants. The ammonia/nitrite levels were never low enough to make me feel comfortable enough to add fish.
And I agree about seeding the tank with filter material, but I add ammonia, not actual fish, until the cycle is complete. With the small amount of bacteria from the 2.5 gallon it would still take weeks before your bacteria colony would be able to support cichlids.
What I'm saying is that it would cease to be a fishless cycle if you add fish before you can get 5ppm of ammonia down to 0ppm in 24 hours. If you add fish before that happens you have to monitor the tank constantly. What a hassle! If you use straight ammonia and be patient it's much less work and, in my opinion, a lot better for the fish.
And I agree about seeding the tank with filter material, but I add ammonia, not actual fish, until the cycle is complete. With the small amount of bacteria from the 2.5 gallon it would still take weeks before your bacteria colony would be able to support cichlids.
What I'm saying is that it would cease to be a fishless cycle if you add fish before you can get 5ppm of ammonia down to 0ppm in 24 hours. If you add fish before that happens you have to monitor the tank constantly. What a hassle! If you use straight ammonia and be patient it's much less work and, in my opinion, a lot better for the fish.
I prefer pure ammonia over using fish with seeded tanks unless you are completely transferring tanks (same filter, same stock).I should have made that clear in my original post.
Dr. Awkward- they aren't planning on cichlids in the 72...
Dr. Awkward- they aren't planning on cichlids in the 72...
Are you talking about that 6 gallon acrylic tank? What kind of cichlid do you have?
This is a most informative thread for me. Ok, so let me get this straight. First, unless planting a rainforest under water a silent cycle is pretty unheard of. Letting a filter sponge sit at the bottom of my chiclids tank for 2 to 3 weeks is a good idea but not on its own. Plant and add sponge, then add ammonia to equal 5ppm. Monitor levels of Amonia, nitrates, and nitrites (no fish yet mind you). I'm sure that I will be doing much more reading on cycling. I see there is a rather long sticky in this section that I'm sure will be a wealth of information. Thank you for the quick feedback.
Dr. Awkward, yes I believe it is the 6 gal. acrylic that I was considering. Comes with light, filter etc. Sid (the chiclid) is a....well....he's a mean fish. I dont know what type of chiclid he is actually. He hates everything though. He's roughly 2 inches in lenght, primarily light silver gray in color with darker vertical bands. Not a convict. Believe he as a Wal-mart fish with the title of African Chiclid. He has a small patch of orange above his pectoral fins on each side. I always thought it was just because his food pellets were orange. I will endevor to find out exactly what species he is.
Looks like i'm going to have to take a picture and see if any of you can ID him. And figure out how to host a picture on this site.
Dwarf African cichlid. Close as I can get right now. He's not very photogenic. Turns out he hates cameras as much as he hates everything else.
From your description I'm going to guess you have a juvenile socolofi. It's so hard to tell with Walmart fish because a lot of them are hybrids. Sorry to get off topic. The only reason I ask is that it's easier to plan for your new tank if you know what kind of fish you have.
