Cycling Alternative, Would This Work?

[mosfet]

I have just filled up my 4ft tank and i have left it for 7 days. (Without any additional treatment) The advisor in my local store suggested that rather than carry out a cycling process posted here then i could simply start by adding a small number of hardened fish (5 for example). He recommended i stay away from guppies or neons to begin and try and some fish that are less sensitive to there surroundings.
These fish will begin wasting and hence the process of bacteria build up will begin. After a month or so he then suggested that i could then test the water and he believes it will be ready to add more fish and the bacteria should have began to build up in the filter?
What are your thoughts on this approach?
Naturally i would still have to the weekly water change of 20-25%

Cheers

 

[GRJ]

This would be a 'fish in' cycle and would give you more problems further down the line. As the ammonia and nitrite build up, they would slowly poison the fish and most likely kill them. The only way to do it this way would be to test your water up to 4 times a day and carry out very labourous water changes whick require an unbelievable commitment from you. I did it this way and was doing 4 large water changes a day, there were bucktes of wtaer everywhere and i had a lot of fish die. You should thoroughly read the posts and stickys on fishless cycling as its normally much quicker and yu can fully stock your tank once its cycled. Doing it the fish in way, you will have to keep waiting for the bio-load to catch up everytime you add a few fish. It will take months and thats a lot of stress on the fish, hardy or not. LFS's normally tell people to do a fish in cycle, you only learn the reality of it from places like this forum. Also the fish's immune system would be compramisedwhich would lead to bacterial infections. The question is, do you want to keep fish, or care for fish. Hope that helped. Good luck. GRJ

 

[rdd1952]

You can cycle that way and it will work. It just takes a very long time before your tank is fully stocked. You also usually will end up with fish that you may not want (the hardy ones that you cycle with or at least those that don't die in the process). Most fish stores will naturally tel you that because they will also get to sell you the chemical "fixes" for the high ammonia and nitrite that you will see and also more fish to replace those that die. it's money in their pockets. Personally, I don't like losing fish and having to do daily water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite low.

 

[mosfet]

I agree with you both, also it seems a bit cruel to poison the fish that are starting off the process. I will follow the process of a fishless cycle as detailed in the stickys. Cheers guys i appreciate your time.

 

[GRJ]

You are more than welcome and good luck!GRJ