Cycling help, appreciated!

External Since: Oct 15, 2007 Posts: 14

Hi all! Wth several replies I'll do a group 'thanks' for all of you.
BioSpira it is. I would not have remembered the name of brands very well.

I got my first fish (goldfish) when I was 12. It was still alive when I was
27 (gifted to a friend when I was 23 and joined the Navy 24 years ago).
I've had fish tanks everyplace I've ever lived. Even in Sasebo Japan, we
had a cute toy unit (5g) with tetras. Now tht we are back stateside, my
stored 70gTall unit (a little thinner and a little taller than most other
70g's) will be here Thursday. It's inital home will be on the porch, filled
and just waiting patiently to make sure it doesnt leak <G>. I believe I
have a 30 and a 40g tank each in strorage as well.

My normal cycling method has been to use 1-2 fish of a sturdy type that I'll
keep, combined with the bottled 'biota'. Normally, with a really big tank
and careful checks, the starter fish do survive. Goldfish BTW are perfect
for this but unless you plan to keep the tank a goldfish tank, you have a
problem finding it a home. The LFS here *used* to let you buy one, cycle,
then return it for 1/2 the cost. These were just scruff feeder fish and
itty bitty enough they couldnt sell them til they got older and they were
happy with the deal. I refuse to get a fish just to throw it down the
toilet becase I can't find it a home. I may cycle the big tank with
guppies, then move them to the smaller tank.

Using bith the 'biota' and fsh, makes the process a bit faster and a bit
more fun as we have something in there at the start. I let the tank sit for
a week with the biota before i add the first 1-2 small fish, and then they
complete the cycle. The reminder of 'about a month' for fishless cycle,
turned the brainwaves back on. It takes 7-10 days less if you add fish at
the end of the first week. Also, smaller tanks oddly to me, take longer to
get a really *good* cycle than the 70gT tank.

I generally stick to simpler less expensive fish. Curious what you folks
have found workable for community tanks? I generally prefer lots of mid to
small sized ones in the 70g as opposed to just a few big ones.
xxcarol

External Since: Oct 17, 2007 Posts: 5

Hi Carol,

Usually what I do are fishless cycles on my new tanks using Bio-Spira, or
just some squeezes from a sponge filter in one of my other tanks. You can
use 100% pure household ammonia (comes in clear white bottles, no
sulfactents or detergents) that you can find in the cleaning aisles of most
stores and maintain an ammonia level of 2 parts per million. Use an ammonia
test kit to maintain the water at that level every day throughout the cycle
and monitor it also with nitrite and nitrate test kits. The first strains of
bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite grow in first, and you'll be able
to see the tank's beneficial bacteria start to consume the ammonia by
converting it into nitrite within a few days. The second strains of bacteria
that convert nitrite to nitrate take a little longer to grow in, and you
will see a large buildup of nitrite over about a two week period. Then,
you'll see a dramatic crash in the nitrite levels and a spike in nitrate.
When you see that nitrite level crash from off the chart nitrite to zero
nitrite and all nitrate, then you know your tank is cycled.

At that point, you can stop dosing the tank with ammonia and add whichever
fish you want. You don't need to worry about subjecting any fish to the
nitrogen cycle and you can introduce all of the fish at the same time if you
wish (useful for semi-aggressives and aggressive fish tanks).

Bio-spira works fine but it relies on the fact that the spores of bacteria
in solution will grow to a population large enough to handle both ammonia
and nitrites before they build up to a level where they become stressful on
your fish. With my own testing (with liquid test kits) i've found that it
does handle ammonia well but not nitrites. In fact, unless it's a very large
tank with very few fish in it or a heavily planted freshwater tank, I
wouldn't suggest anyone believe for a second that using bio-spira is an
"instant" cycle method. It's just another way to seed a biological filter,
which does speed up the process, but isn't instant.

I hope this helps you with your future tank projects.

-Aiptasia

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