Plenty in there to think about and debate. I'ma bit shellshocked and probably need to read through a few more times to get a clearer idea of the concept(s).

I like that this post keeps coming back -- it helps that more and more people are reading it. The word will get out eventually, and I am so happy because it is going to help keep more fish healthier and more people will enjoy this hobby.

Interesting post and stats !!


I reckon that you would appreciate this site !

http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum3.html

Great work and a great read. I have recently returned to fishkeeping after a five year break and done a cycle with fish but very few, probably less than most do. The thing that interests me is that with such a small quantity of fish I was able to keep the ammonia very low with water changes, tested daily and never had ammonia above 0.3ppm. Of course once cycled the bacterial colony would still be relatively small but coping with the small amount of fish waste. What your analysis also shows is that having reached this position it is not neccesary to add new fish over a long time as conventional wisdom suggests, instead you could double the population every day until you reached full stock levels and still not overwhelm the filter and push ammonia up again, though in practice I would suggest a little slower than this!

If anyone is interested my fish never showed any sign of stress and all of them are still fit and healthy. Cycling with fish needs care and commitment but I don't think it is the evil it is made out to be unless it is mismanaged.

Another point about filters and bacteria is that the bacteria don't stop multiplying when they can just cope with the waste, they carry on until no more can live on the waste being produced which is a higher population. This means that taking a proportion of your filter media out to give to a friend or whatever will not normally cause a mini-cycle as the remaining bacteria will consume more waste and use the energy to multiply and restore the population to the higher level. Not quite sure what the ratio of the two population levels is, maybe the original poster has some thoughts.