fishy cycle

[ara35]

well after talking to a friend who had two tanks and cycled using rosy red minnows, that is what ive chosen to do. how long should it take for the ammonia to spike and how often should i do water changes? thanks

 

[southpaw]

There is no magic number for how long it will take since every tank is different..... You will have to test daily to keep a close eye on especially the ammonia and nitrite levels and keep them both below .25ppm ....This may mean you will have to do daily water changes and maybe even two water changes a day sometimes.

Does your friend still have a tank ? If so see if they will give you some of their filter media and/or a handful or so of gravel to add to your tank to help with seeding it with good bacteria to speed things up alittle. Or see if your LFS carries Bio Spira you can buy that and add to help speed the cycle.

I am not a fan of fishy cyles at all but I remember you had a post where you couldnt find any good ammonia to do a fishless cycle..... I just hope you are prepared to stay on top of things and do all the required water changes to keep your fish safe. It will be alot more work this way and depending on the size of your tank... alot of water to change out.

 

[echoofformless]

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And in addition to that, I will say that with established media from my other tanks I have never once had to "cycle" new ones. Bacteria multiplies like crazy when it is given enough food. Just to make sure I have always started new tanks with ammonia and established media; and not once have my tests ever returned a positive for ammonia and nitrite. I could have added fish immediately but stayed safe and added them after I was sure all was good.

 

[terror]

Hi,

When using media from other established tank.
how much media media should be used to seed?
also will high ammonia level kill off any bacteria in established media?

thanks.

 

[Rbishop]

The more media the better.

The bacteria is what consumes the ammonia...