Fish In Cycle Advice?

[Benunited]

Hi folks

My 30 litre biorb is doing great a few months after completing a fishless cycle. So I'm well aware of the benefits of going through the cycle process.

But after an awful lot of frustration going through the process, what I'm wondering is if it's EVER okay to try a fish IN cycle - if you REALLY take your time adding the fish?

Two weeks ago I set up a 260 litre tank. If, for example, I added just 6 guppies, what would happen?

Would their waste - and subsequent ammonia levels - even register in a 260 litre tank? And would they be able to slowly kick-start the cycling process? I can also add some things from my biorb which will have plenty of beneficial bacteria.

Basically, I'm thinking of adding say 6 guppies now, waiting to see how things go and then add a few more fish every month after that.

Overall goal would be around 10 guppies, 10 tetras, a couple of clown loaches, a siamese fighter and a frog.

Thanks for any advice!

Ben

 

[fishyfriendz]

Hi folks

My 30 litre biorb is doing great a few months after completing a fishless cycle. So I'm well aware of the benefits of going through the cycle process.

But after an awful lot of frustration going through the process, what I'm wondering is if it's EVER okay to try a fish IN cycle - if you REALLY take your time adding the fish?

Two weeks ago I set up a 260 litre tank. If, for example, I added just 6 guppies, what would happen?

Would their waste - and subsequent ammonia levels - even register in a 260 litre tank? And would they be able to slowly kick-start the cycling process? I can also add some things from my biorb which will have plenty of beneficial bacteria.

Basically, I'm thinking of adding say 6 guppies now, waiting to see how things go and then add a few more fish every month after that.

Overall goal would be around 10 guppies, 10 tetras, a couple of clown loaches, a siamese fighter and a frog.

Thanks for any advice!

Ben

Hi Ben


If you collect media from your existing tank, ie, sponges / stones / gravel, and hang it in your new tank using a piece of stocking or tights your new tank will cycle more or less instantly, removing the need to cycle fish in.

As to your question, some of the guppies would survive but they wouldn't live for long, they would show signs of ammonia poisoning and then finally nitrate poisoning and then if they survive would suffer a shortened life span.

Ammonia would register as it is a poison even in the smallest levels. Guppies are not hardy fish. You could also use tetra safe start but it would be expensive for a tank of that size, as you need to use a set amount per litre. Also! The stress that fish in cycling causes both affects the appearance and behaviour of the fish, directly impacting on you as you are forced to watch them. Not worth it really.

Bettas (siamese fighting fish) generally hate male guppies due to fin competition. Apparently if you want to introduce them you should do it after the other fish are settled and then only in a breeding net at first. However on personal experience dont bother, you grow attatched to a fish you have to give away as he is either nipped in a community tank or a bully to the others.

 

[waterdrop]

The problem will be that the 30L BiOrb will probably not have a significant amount of biomedia to offer. BiOrbs can barely handle an understocking of their set size, much less give up media to a donation. Plus, if I remember right, most of the "biomedia" is actually the substrate of the tank, like an undergravel filter type of technique.

You are really stepping up from a quite small tank to a quite large one Beunited! Seems like that would give you even more reason to want to "do it right." You'll probably have a nice large external cannister, or even two, to run a big tank like that and my guess is that the fishless cycle would be much more straight-forward with that type of filter than it was with the BiOrb. Plus, one should never give up the search for other sources of MM, you never know when you'll get lucky!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Benunited]

Thanks for the advice folks!

Met someone today who has actually just started a fish in cycle.

He has a 240 litre tank, waited 2 or 3 weeks and then added 12 neon cardinals. He said that 2 weeks later he still has 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite readings.

Any idea why that is? Will the cardinals eventually be poisoned and die?

He said he was advised this would be fine by the aquarium shop and that he could gradually add fish to build his community up - but then the advice on this forum (generally VERY helpful indeed) tends to differ wildly from shops I find.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

Ben

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, fishless cycling is something you're hardly ever going to find understading or support for in the shops. That's an old, old story and the subject of huge thread discussions over the years. You can do searches and do reading to your heart's content if you want to, lol.

~~waterdrop~~