fish for cycling
- Thread starter fishlover88
- Start date
OK
I guess I come from an older school.
There wasn't so much fretting about cycling then. After the water had been given a few days to settle and dechlorinate, you could add a few fish. Preferably not ones known to be delicate.
They would live and (so far as I can tell) live happily. After a decent interval you could add a few more.
The trick was to not overstock. That's all.
Cheers
I guess I come from an older school.
There wasn't so much fretting about cycling then. After the water had been given a few days to settle and dechlorinate, you could add a few fish. Preferably not ones known to be delicate.
They would live and (so far as I can tell) live happily. After a decent interval you could add a few more.
The trick was to not overstock. That's all.
Cheers
I am not saying to adjust the PH, I am simply stating the parameters that the bacteria will do well in. For the most part, water coming out of the tap will be at 7 or higher. Aside from the PH issue, other factors that also effect the bacteria are temp,aeration and surfaces.
Also I am not saying that PH will speed a cycle along but it may make a difference between 4 to 6 weeks and several months, a kabillion water changes later, and money spent on snake oil.
Having a better understanding what exactly is taken place during a cycle and what can be done to help the process I think is helpful.
Somewhat off topic, but I was glad to see caspers post about water parameters and cycling. I knew about temp and O2 but these are easily controlable factors that are often forgotten about. As far as PH goes, I agree with not trying to mess with it, BUT Knowing about it is a good thing,IMO. I didnt know about bacterias PH preference and I am glad to hear about it.
Back toeards topic; The lovely man at the local Pet store (there Is no LFS) suggested that I buy a couple of Goldfish to cycle my tank and then bring them back when the are too big. Not My idea of good practice.
Just curious, did OP start this thread just to roil the waters?
Back toeards topic; The lovely man at the local Pet store (there Is no LFS) suggested that I buy a couple of Goldfish to cycle my tank and then bring them back when the are too big. Not My idea of good practice.
Just curious, did OP start this thread just to roil the waters?
bacteria will do fine in any pH. it really isnt an "issue" if you leave the pH alone and it stays stable.
I did fishy cycle...wrong...
I'm lucky as heck my tank isn't all messed up (not now... it's full of algae
)...
One, I didn't know you need to keep ammonia below .25 ppm. second, I got 8 goldfish (got rid of 7, 3 days later). third, the goldfish was kept at an ammonia level of (maximum) 5 ppm! He was breathing on the surface but I didn't know....
when the cycle was over, I got 3 neons which all died. Turns out, it wasn't my tank, rather my PETCO. So I went over to petgoods and got some healthier fish...
took me 3 months to figure out how to properly do a cycle. Since I have a 10 gal tank, I was planning to do a fishless cycle (for the sake of fish) but I noticed I had filter media from the 20 gal...
Hope this will *somehow* help...
call me a fish torturer :sad:
I'm lucky as heck my tank isn't all messed up (not now... it's full of algae
)...One, I didn't know you need to keep ammonia below .25 ppm. second, I got 8 goldfish (got rid of 7, 3 days later). third, the goldfish was kept at an ammonia level of (maximum) 5 ppm! He was breathing on the surface but I didn't know....
when the cycle was over, I got 3 neons which all died. Turns out, it wasn't my tank, rather my PETCO. So I went over to petgoods and got some healthier fish...
took me 3 months to figure out how to properly do a cycle. Since I have a 10 gal tank, I was planning to do a fishless cycle (for the sake of fish) but I noticed I had filter media from the 20 gal...
Hope this will *somehow* help...
call me a fish torturer :sad:
Maybe a couple of the bio-chem guys will chip in, but I have never seen any research posted that states a particular pH is more compatible to aquarium bacteria growth for handling the nitrogen cycle, in the normal realm of tap pH, 6.0-8.0
*I don't even know why I'm putting this in*
NEVER get the media from a saltwater tank to put in your freshwater tank and vice versa.
NEVER get the media from a saltwater tank to put in your freshwater tank and vice versa.
ok after careful consideration of what everyone has said here. Cause i do value all of your opinions. The issue is not a tank near me. Im actually trying to cycle my girlfriends tank, that has been out of commission for several years.
Ive had it running for about a week, before i posted my question, so that i could get the temperature about right. And im not touching the pH, stability is too important to deal with that.
What im going to do is take one of the back media in my penguin 330, and let it sit in her tank for a couple of days, test the water, and slowly add small fish like white clouds, before the permanent fish.
I realize that many of you prefer the fishless cycle, and to be honest ive never even heard of one before i posted this forum
Ive had it running for about a week, before i posted my question, so that i could get the temperature about right. And im not touching the pH, stability is too important to deal with that.
What im going to do is take one of the back media in my penguin 330, and let it sit in her tank for a couple of days, test the water, and slowly add small fish like white clouds, before the permanent fish.
I realize that many of you prefer the fishless cycle, and to be honest ive never even heard of one before i posted this forum
