What do you think? Should I do a fishless cycle and for how long? Or should I put a few fish in there after a week or two and help it to cycle that way??????
Cycling 10 gallon
- Thread starter Erynn
- Start date
I would start off a few cheep gold fish if you want to cycle you 10 gal tank and then wait 6 to 8 weeks to buy the fish you want.
You can also find some one who you know that has a large tank and get 10 gallons of their water to speed up the process.
Hi,
well you can either start off with a few hardy fish like white clouds(or one feeder gold fish if you are planing a cold water gold fish tank), or you could do a fish less cycle... to learn more on how to do a fish less cycle there is a good article on that subject on the web at, "toms place". Good luck,
mt_marcy
)
well you can either start off with a few hardy fish like white clouds(or one feeder gold fish if you are planing a cold water gold fish tank), or you could do a fish less cycle... to learn more on how to do a fish less cycle there is a good article on that subject on the web at, "toms place". Good luck,
mt_marcy
)established tank water, gravel, filter material, etc will all help cycle a tank. doing a fishless cycle will not necessarily take more work (adding chemicals and testing vs feeding and changing water when chemicals spike) it will be faster, especially if you get established media in there as soon as possible.
Hi Erynn.
I'm pro-fishless cycle. I finished a fishless on a 30g a few weeks ago and I'm in to middle of one on a 10g now. This is the classic article on fishless cycling. It lays the whole thing out. Fishless is faster and doesn't hurt the fish. At the end of the cycle (3-4 weeks) you can go straight to a fully stocked tank.
A cup of gravel, some filter media, or even an ornament from an established aquarium can help speed things up by introducing a large colony. Almost all the bacteria live on something (are not free floating) so carting around buckets of tank water will do little good.
If you can't resist the temptation to get a fish in the water and decide to go with a fishy cycle, I'd avoid feeders or goldfish and use a couple of zebra danios. Feeders are notoriously dirty fish, and goldfish are big coldwater fish. Zebras are cheap and hardy and the survivors can stay in the tank when the cycle is done.
I'm pro-fishless cycle. I finished a fishless on a 30g a few weeks ago and I'm in to middle of one on a 10g now. This is the classic article on fishless cycling. It lays the whole thing out. Fishless is faster and doesn't hurt the fish. At the end of the cycle (3-4 weeks) you can go straight to a fully stocked tank.
A cup of gravel, some filter media, or even an ornament from an established aquarium can help speed things up by introducing a large colony. Almost all the bacteria live on something (are not free floating) so carting around buckets of tank water will do little good.
If you can't resist the temptation to get a fish in the water and decide to go with a fishy cycle, I'd avoid feeders or goldfish and use a couple of zebra danios. Feeders are notoriously dirty fish, and goldfish are big coldwater fish. Zebras are cheap and hardy and the survivors can stay in the tank when the cycle is done.
Orbitorly
Out in left field...
I aggree with Carp, anything from an established tank would help speed things up cup of gravel and so on.
I second the part on the zebra danios about 6 danios should do, there cheap 69 cents here and are hardy fish, feeders are dirty and kinda picky on there water conditions. Goldfish are also dirty, they require colder water ( In the 60's I think) I cycled my 29 gal with 12 danios and it worked fine
Good luck!
Agreed with carpguy... he hit the nail on the head. There is little or no benefits in adding established tank water to a new tank. You can fill the entire 10 gallons with water from an established tank, and your cycle will not be cut down (by a lot anyways). Its more effective to get decor, gravel, or filter media from an established tank rather than water.
No matter what size tank, I would suggest a fishless cycle. IMHO, its easier to do than a fishy cycle, and there are more benefits. First off, when doing a fishy cycle, you must keep an extremely close eye on the water chemistry and do multiple water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites low. With a fishless cycle, no water changes are needed, and you don't need to be exact (ie. over a period of time, you can start the estimate the amount of ammonia to be added as you get a feel for your tank as it progresses through the cycle). I don't know about you, but I would hate doing a water change once a day (or more), even on a small tank. Second of all, as stated before, after a fishless cycle, you can fully stock a tank with little or no problems. There is a very minimal chance that you can overload the biofilter (unless you stock your tank cartoonishly). Third of all, the general trend seems to indicate that fishless cycles usually cycle a tank faster than a fishy cycle. Sounds pretty good to me. Fourth and perhaps most important of all, no fish were harmed during the process. You can tell me that through water changes all levels were kept low, but imho, even a little bit of ammonia is harmful. Its better that the fish never came in contact with it at all, no matter how hardy the fish is.
HTH
-Richer
No matter what size tank, I would suggest a fishless cycle. IMHO, its easier to do than a fishy cycle, and there are more benefits. First off, when doing a fishy cycle, you must keep an extremely close eye on the water chemistry and do multiple water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites low. With a fishless cycle, no water changes are needed, and you don't need to be exact (ie. over a period of time, you can start the estimate the amount of ammonia to be added as you get a feel for your tank as it progresses through the cycle). I don't know about you, but I would hate doing a water change once a day (or more), even on a small tank. Second of all, as stated before, after a fishless cycle, you can fully stock a tank with little or no problems. There is a very minimal chance that you can overload the biofilter (unless you stock your tank cartoonishly). Third of all, the general trend seems to indicate that fishless cycles usually cycle a tank faster than a fishy cycle. Sounds pretty good to me. Fourth and perhaps most important of all, no fish were harmed during the process. You can tell me that through water changes all levels were kept low, but imho, even a little bit of ammonia is harmful. Its better that the fish never came in contact with it at all, no matter how hardy the fish is.
HTH
-Richer
Just to second Richer: I strongly favor the fishless cycle. Its faster, safer, easier, and lets you get to fully stocked quicker. I recently set up my first tank (after bouncing around here for 4 months) and went fishless. I'm setting up a second tank fishless now. The third tank will also be fishless (bad hobby for obsessive types
).
If you can't wait, go with the zebras. But wait -- you're fish will thank you.
).If you can't wait, go with the zebras. But wait -- you're fish will thank you.