Cycling A New Tank

[rossyboy]

I've read about people putting fish into a new tank to aid cycling.

I've got some X-ray tetras to which i hear are really hardy and ideal for job?

If this is true when should i put them in! (how many days after setup)

 

[-SPB-]

It's not good to put any fish into the tank while you just starting a new setup. You really need to do a fishless cycle. Putting fish in a tank before it's cycled can harm the fish, if not kill them. Heres a link about fishless cycling:

http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...shless-Cycling/

Hope this helps

 

[rdd1952]

If you've already bought them, you may as well put them in. You can leave a tank sitting for a day, a week or a month and it will still basically have the same amount of beneficial bacteria in it....none. The bacteria colony will only start to develop when there is a food source to feed them. With fish in the tank, they produce that food in the way of waste, creating ammonia. That is transformed into nitrite and then nitrite is transformed into nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are both extremely toxic and will kill fish. Hardy fish that are exposed to it may indeed live but they will still suffer damage that will shorten their lives. Until the tank cycles, there isn't enough bacteria to process the ammonia and nitrite and so they build unless you do water changes daily to keep them at a low enough level so that the exposure of the fish to the toxins is kept to a minimum.

What do you have the tetras in now?

 

[rossyboy]

Hi..

They are in my community tank at the moment.

 

[rdd1952]

In that case, I would suggest doing a fishless cycle OR cloning the new tank by simply moving some mature filter media from the community tank into the new tank. What size are the 2 tanks? If they are identical or the new one is smaller, you could basically move half the media and have the new tank instantly cycled. There would only be half the bacteria you needed in either tank at that point but the bacteria would double in about 24 hours to be back to full strength.

 

[rossyboy]

the smaller one (new) is Jewel60, the new one is Jewel70 so the filters are slightly different.

But... if i am correct i'm sure the sponges are just sideways arranged in the 60!

 

[rossyboy]

ok i've done that now Should i still leave it a few days?

 

[rdd1952]

Once you have added the media, you should be a ble to start adding fish right away. There will be bacteria present. I have never cloned a tank so I'm not quite certain how quickly people stock their tanks (as far as a few fish versus full stock) after cloning though.