Hello

[Meogeo]

Hello folks I am new to this forum and I have a question, I receive a new tank next week approx 200 litres and I have heard so many story's that I should do a fishless cycle, but I have had smaller tropical tanks in the past and never did a fishless cycle and I have never lost fish before, I understand about Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrites oh and not forgetting PH, but surely if I keep a 25% water change going until the filter media has bedded in I should be fine with fish in the tank, I have a chemical water test kit that I can use daily so do you think I will be fine putting fish in the tank after about a week of settling the tank in?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[MegaZerino]

I've never done fishless cycles when i ha small tanks, but i recently got a 125litre and didn't cycle it(because i had no where to move the fish) and although i didn't lose any fish, ive still even after 3 months got extremely high nitrate and a wobly PH, so i do thinkit's worth it with bigger tanks, mainly for the long term effects as opposed to just fish deaths

 

[garyspence84]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you have some already used filter media, then you might be able to pull it off, but is highly recommended not trying it. The constant water changes would keep your water parms to a min, but your filter needs time to build up good bacteria. Fish in cycles are too much like hard work for my liking.

Although not impossible, I've red folk on this forum have done it in the past (but with much smaller tanks) and its worked for them, but at the expense of some fish and a lot of work.

Hope that didn't seem like a crappy rant.

Happy tanking

G

 

[Meogeo]

Thanks very much for the input so it looks like a fishless cycle when the tank is full of water.