Newbie cycling quesion

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bmacd

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Feb 26, 2009
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Hi all. New to the site and so far am very impressed with the wealth of information. Thanks in advance to the so many of you whose posts I have already read and gained more knowledge. My question is this:

We set up our 29g freshwater last Saturday(Feb 21), including live plants. The guy at the LFS said we could put fish in 24 hours later. Speaking to several people who have tanks, we decided against that. Most said to wait at least 5 days to a week. We are going to wait at least a week. I know there has been controversy here on whether to do a fish-in cycle or fishless cycle. I am opting for fish-in. I have found alot of good info on it and feel that I have the time to be able to do what needs to be done daily in order to accomplish this. I tested my water today and after 5 days of being set up(no fish, only live plants) my ammonia was between .25 and 0, my nitrite was at 0 and my nitrate was at 0. Are these levels acceptable to add 2 fish on Saturday(Feb 28) to begin the fish-in cycling? Are they acceptable to add today, or should I wait the full week? We were thinking of adding either 2 platys or 2 mollies or 1 of each to start. Sound good or does someone have some advice to lean me a different way? Thanks so much in advance for the help.
 
Fishless is clearly prefered, but not everyone opts for this. Personally I would ask some of your friends with tanks to give you an old filter media (sponge or floss) and use this in your tank. This will simply amaze you at how fast your tank cycles and what mini-spikes you do have will be far less stressful than undergoing a true fish-in process (your fish will love you for it). Also, if they aren't around your LFS sells these old filter medias for around $3-5 (you only need one).
 
If there is no source of ammonia, then I'm not sure what you are accomplishing by waiting. Without ammonia, you are not cycling the tank. You are off-gassing chlorine, but that only takes one day and it won't get rid of chloramine so you still need a good water conditioner like Prime.

You really don't want any detectable ammonia when you put fish in the tank. It is highly toxic, which is why it's so difficult to do fish-in cycling. If you really are getting ammonia readings above zero, where is it coming from? Have you tested your water source (tap)?
 
cellodaisy said:
If there is no source of ammonia, then I'm not sure what you are accomplishing by waiting. Without ammonia, you are not cycling the tank. You are off-gassing chlorine, but that only takes one day and it won't get rid of chloramine so you still need a good water conditioner like Prime.

You really don't want any detectable ammonia when you put fish in the tank. It is highly toxic, which is why it's so difficult to do fish-in cycling. If you really are getting ammonia readings above zero, where is it coming from? Have you tested your water source (tap)?
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You say you are not sure what I am accomplishing by waiting..that is my question..do I need to wait or can I put 2 starter fish in now based on my readings I mentioned above....i took ammonia reading again and it was 0...was probably the light I was reading it in. Thanks.
 
bmacd said:
You say you are not sure what I am accomplishing by waiting..that is my question..do I need to wait or can I put 2 starter fish in now based on my readings I mentioned above....i took ammonia reading again and it was 0...was probably the light I was reading it in. Thanks.
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If you are set on a fish-in cycle, your ammonia and nitrite levels are 0, your nitrite and pH are within norms, and you've used a good water conditioner, I see no reason to wait.
 
If I opt to put in old filter media from my LFS, can I put fish in at same time or should I wait awhile after using the old filter media? Thanks again!
 
The purpose of getting old filter media is to jumpstart your bacteria population. It should be fine for quite some time without an ammonia source (see below), but there is no particular reason to wait.

from http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183510

THE V said:
Here's the answer for some common misunderstandings that you find on the web.

Nitrifying bacteria can go 4-6 months at room temperature without food with no significant die-off.

Nitrifying bacteria can stand to be dried out. They go into a type of hibernation until water and nutrients become available. They can also take a long time to come out of the hibernation (weeks). When doing a fishless cycle without adding innoculum to the tank, the bacteria innoculum floats in on air currents (dust).

Some strains of the nitrifying bacteria can stand anaerobic conditions. They are actually classified as facultative anaerobes not strict aerobes as was previously thought.

Nitrifying bacteria grow exponentially at approximately one generation per day. 2^n where n = the number of days. So 1 bacterium with grow to be 512 bacteria in 10 days and 536,870,912 in 30 days. So as long as you give them food any amount of innoculum will meet the needs of your tank if given enough time.

Nitrifying bacteria can be frozen. They just don't convert NH3 to NO2 or NO2 to NO3 at less than 10C.

And so continues my quest to stop vicious microbiology rumors.:wall:
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Newbie's advice may be easier. :)

If you want to go for with-fish-cycling, you can put 1 or 2 fishes at the same time as old filter putting. IMO, Zebra Danio is better than molly or platy. (Bacteria supplement may be helpful. I am not sure..)

You better be prepare for smaller tank for future QT tank as well.
(In our case, we always run two HOBs in the main tank. When we have to setup QT for new fish / sick fish, we put one of the HOB from main tank to QT tank.)


bmacd said:
If I opt to put in old filter media from my LFS, can I put fish in at same time or should I wait awhile after using the old filter media? Thanks again!
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I think if you have plants in the tank. U can add fish after ammonia is 0. Start with hardy low bioload fish and then increase the numbers. I usually add airstone from my old tanks for added areation in addition to old filter media. That's just me. I don't know my methods are correct but i haven't lost a fish during setup.
 
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