Cycling

[Jimmy Twotimes]

I plan to fishless cycle my new tank once it arrives. I have a friend who has kept fish (with varied success) whom I'm tempted to get some gravel from to help seed my tank.

However, he certainly does not take his fish keeping seriously, laughs at me for purchasing all my test kits and explaining what a fishless cycle is and openly admits to changing his water about once every couple of months.

So, I'm worried his water quality is poor (he has had a few fish die recently) and I'm in two minds whether or not to take some gravel.

However, as I'm fishless cycling I wondered whether it would make any difference as I have no fish in my tank that could be infected and with no host wouldnt any potential fish disease bacteria just die anyway.

Or should I steer clear of my mate's fish tank...!

jimmy

 

[ade]

I personally would stay clear of it. I recently upgraded my tank and moved my fish out of their old home into the new one. I didn't even kick-start my new tank with water from the old tank.

Don't forget that your filter/gravel are hosts for any bacteria (supposed to be the good bacteria - but guess the baddies wouldn't say no to a free home either.

Try your LFS if you want to kick-start it with water/gravel - their water should be decent, I'd much prefer going for that option.

 

[Lithril]

If he's had fish start dying its probably best to steer clear unless you know the cause (nitrite/nitrate???). If there is some sort of infection/parasite etc that doing the damage you'll only infect your current tank.

If your taking water from your lfs try and find out what sort of filtration system they use. Some shops use carbon filtration which can can cause bacteria to lie dormant (for want of better words), as soon as they're removed from from this type of filtration will become active. I know some people who have lost fish this way.

Btw above is only what I heard recently from a friend whose dad used to own a fish shop so if anyone can correct me or give me more info please do. Cheers

 

[Eelzor]

However, he certainly does not take his fish keeping seriously, laughs at me for purchasing all my test kits and explaining what a fishless cycle is and openly admits to changing his water about once every couple of months.

That's exactly the same as one of my friends. He keeps coldwater fish and has goldfish living (I can understand that), but he also has guppies in his coldwater tank and I have NO IDEA how they are living without a heater for years now.