Cycling My New 60l Tank

[martyn413]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of cycling my tank. Last Wednesday i put the ammonia into the tank then tested it after 1 hour. The ammonia was at 8ppm. I've been testing every day and the ammonia is still at 8ppm.

I'm finding the cycling process exciting and cannot wait to see nitrites. I am usually inpatient but for some reason I’m not anxious to put fish in (good info from this site).

I have been researching the fish i'd like to keep and below are what i've chosen:

5 Neons
4 Corys
5 other small tetras

Martyn

PS - it is worrying how many people didn't know about a fishless cycle, i had trouble finding the ammonia and when i asked a guy in Dyers (UK) he said he has tropical fish and didn't know about fishless cycle. People thought i was crazy about putting ammonia into a fish tank. I bought the ammonia from (robert) Dyers for about £2.99. I also called several fish stores in east sussex with no luck. I find it annoying that pet stores sell fish without correct information.

 

[Underwurlde]

Well, you don't HAVE to do a fishless cycles - it's a recent technique that is also turns out to be the most humane.

But if you're a shop, like any business, you have to sell to survive. Imaging telling every customer who walked through your doors - "here, have a £100 fish tank, then come back in 2 to 3 months time when its cycled to get your fish'.... People, generally, are not patient and if told that will just go to another fish shop who'll tell them what they want to hear "Cycling??? Baloney! I've been doing this for X years blah blah blah, have your fish now". Who is the customer going to want to believe, rightly or wrongly?

Also, LFS's are usually set up by people who've been successfully stocking tanks for years using tried and tested methods that are now becomming out dated, but the above will still hold true - you don't want people's custom going to your competitors!

Andy

 

[toppman]

exactly what happened 2 me, b4 i even new about this site i just relied on the trusted "shop employee" worst mistake u can make, before i new it i had 12 fish within 2 weeks of buying the tank, of course some died but i managed 2 get some out and give them away but thats all behind me now and i beleive its coming up 2 my 3rd year of fish keeping this summer (not that u would be interested) but thats basically my tale of cycling, i still think that using fish 2 cycle is still the best method, just call me old fashioned

 

[Underwurlde]

Also there is the Diana Walstad school of thought:

Day #1: Buy tank, put in substrate and completely fill it with plants.
Day #2: Completely stock up on fish.

The idea, you see, is that the plants are the filters for the fish waste. Hell, with this technique you don't even do water changes.

I am an advocate of this technique based on what I have read, the research done and feedback from those that have tried it. I am going to try a variation of this technique based very, very loosely on EI.

This thing of cycling is not all black and white!

Andy