Fish To Cycle With

[backtotropical]

Just dump in some ammonia and leave it until it goes to 0. You can do that weekly.

Not really. Once the bacteria builds up a bit, the ammonia will get back to 0 in about 12hrs. If you wait a week to add more, all the bacteria would die. That wouldn't work at all.

I cycled my filter with frozen squid, no problem. Please dont use fish, theres really not ever any need to have fish suffering when there are other methods which can be used.

 

[rdd1952]

Hanging a bag of fish flakes, or shrimp or squid as mentioned will produce a steady supply of ammonia as t breaks down and creates ammonia. For this method though you need lots of aeration as not only is oxygen requred to process ammonia and nitrite but also to break the ammonia source down into ammonia.

If you do cycle with fish, you still need to be home to do water changes daily to keep the ammonia and nitrite from becoming so high it kills the fish. The question I have is that if you aren't going to be home enough to add ammonia daily, how are you going to be home to feed the fish once the tank is cycled and stocked?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Not really. Once the bacteria builds up a bit, the ammonia will get back to 0 in about 12hrs. If you wait a week to add more, all the bacteria would die. That wouldn't work at all.

It would work well enough. As soon as the nitrate level goes up you know there's at least some bacteria- water change or wait for a bit longer until ammonia is 0, bung some fish in and bob's your uncle. Or you could always rig up a 'slow release' system via airline syphon with a knot tied in it...

 

[Dorkhedeos]

just throw a piece of frozen shrimp in there or something. you said you will be having a 75 gallon tank? maybe you can cycle with like 3 neons or something so you dont need to get rid of the fish later. i think theres enough water for the neons to be okay.

 

[LuckyCricketMafia]

Is this your first fish tank? If not you can just run the filter you are going to use on the 75gal on the established tank for a week, then you can add fish right away. If it is your first tank, I would go with danios, 10 or so shold be enough depending on how many fish you are going to add after it cycles. Gold fish/Feeder fish are disease ridden, dont use them. Good luck

 

[Dorkhedeos]

Is this your first fish tank? If not you can just run the filter you are going to use on the 75gal on the established tank for a week, then you can add fish right away. If it is your first tank, I would go with danios, 10 or so shold be enough depending on how many fish you are going to add after it cycles. Gold fish/Feeder fish are disease ridden, dont use them. Good luck

it would be better just to take a chunk out of the old media. if the new filter has a lot more flow than the old one, the old one will lose a lot of its bacteria and it will go through a pretty big mini cycle if that makes any sense. if you just take a chunk out of the old media, the old filter wont go through much and the new filter can just build off of that.

 

[Pimp]

oo i forgot about that.. so if i take out my established 30 gal filters and put them in the new 75 gal tank - wont i need fish or something to supply the food source tho?


and whats media?

 

[GuppyDude]

does it make a difference if the fish is tropical or not..

Goldfish would supply plenty of waste for a cycle, but they often carry disease that may harm future tropical inhabitants. Pigeons with fins I call them. If you do end up useing goldfish, id wait atleast a week or so after removeing them before adding tropical species. Though i think a fishless cycle would be a ton easier. Good luck.

 

[LuckyCricketMafia]

if you just use established media you need to add the fish at the same time.

 

[backtotropical]

Not really. Once the bacteria builds up a bit, the ammonia will get back to 0 in about 12hrs. If you wait a week to add more, all the bacteria would die. That wouldn't work at all.

It would work well enough. As soon as the nitrate level goes up you know there's at least some bacteria- water change or wait for a bit longer until ammonia is 0, bung some fish in and bob's your uncle. Or you could always rig up a 'slow release' system via airline syphon with a knot tied in it...

You seem to be slightly confused about the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrate levels would not appear at all until long after the nitrosomonas bacteria had died of starvation, if ammonia was not being added regularly. If you add fish at this stage, you are effectively putting them in a tank with no means of biological filtration. Ammonia would be 0 long before any nitrate reading was detectable, other than what is in the tap water.

 

[Pimp]

if you just use established media you need to add the fish at the same time.

ok so add my mature media( i still dont know what media is- the filter i guess...) and add the fish and blame. sounds to easy

 

[backtotropical]

if you just use established media you need to add the fish at the same time.

ok so add my mature media( i still dont know what media is- the filter i guess...) and add the fish and blame. sounds to easy

The term 'filter media' refers to whatever happens to be in your filter for the bacteria to live on, usually a sponge or ceramic rings.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah Filter media just refers to what the bacteria lives on.. like the filter bag, or sponge, or whatever you use in the filter.