You Think You've Done Everything Right ..........

[scubadoo]

Well got up this morning and tested the water.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25

still not quite there yet, but can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

phew!

Didn't have time for a water change, so will test tonight to see if its needed. The bacteria colony is obviously recovering from whatever went wrong.

We haven't lost as many fish as I feared, but I'll keep a close eye on them to see if there are any lingering effects of the last few days.

 

[Cheffi]

Well got up this morning and tested the water.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.25

still not quite there yet, but can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

phew!

Didn't have time for a water change, so will test tonight to see if its needed. The bacteria colony is obviously recovering from whatever went wrong.

We haven't lost as many fish as I feared, but I'll keep a close eye on them to see if there are any lingering effects of the last few days.

 

[LouiseRat]

in my opinion , ths is a prime example of why fishless cycling is a waste of time .

 

[scubadoo]

in my opinion , ths is a prime example of why fishless cycling is a waste of time .

Everybody is entitled to their opinion.

I do disagree even though I've had problems.

I know that the fish have been through a fairly tough time over the last few days - which I'm really not happy about believe me, but another way of looking at it is that after 4 weeks I have a fully stocked tank that is now (and only just at the moment I admit) providing stable conditions.

The cycling with fish method would have stressed the fish in a similar way, and at each and every subsequent fish addition over a period of months.

I was also a victim of something going wrong - hey you know sh!t happens.

There are plenty of others who have very succesfully cycled tanks fishlessly and added their fish with no problems, relatively quickly and with zero stress on their fish.

 

[Tolak]

I would tend to think it was caused by keeping the sponge out pf the water for a little bit. You have to remember, this is cycled fiter media, not mature filter media. A brand new bacteria colony is not as stable, nor as strong, as a mature bacteria colony.

I've fishless cycled a couple of tanks, the rest were cloned. Once you have a mature tank running, there is really no need to cycle a new tank, unless you get one way bigger than the tank you have, and plan on stocking it fully.