Cycling with Fish

[The-Raven]

I'm currently doing a 25% water change in my 29gal... as I'm cycling with fish in it. I know this site is an avid supporter of fishless cycling, but I tend to disagree.

In any case, will daily/every-other-day 25% water changes help keep the ammonia levels in the water down to a safe level so that the fish don't die, but bacteria will still form?




And in an unrelated note - the water in the tank smells horrid. I can walk in the house and smell the aquarium. I'm assumign water changes will help this issue as well... right?

 

[jflowers]

IMO regular daily water changes are essential when fishless cycling, this will reduce the stress on the fish and still allow for bacteria build up in the filter. I hope you only have a few very hardy fish in there.

Just out of interest, and not to start a flame war, why do you disagree with fishless cycling? PM me if you don't want to post it here.

Jon

[EDIT: Carbon in the filter helps with smelly water, but it should clear up once the cycles over anyway]

 

[Def]

Water changes not only help, they are essential to keep your fish alive. Go buy a water test kit that includes Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Keep testing the tank every day. Keep Ammonia and Nitrite as low as possible. Consider 1.0ppm on either the "serious danger" level. Lots of cycling articles in the forum, do a search.

 

[The-Raven]

IMO regular daily water changes are essential when fishless cycling, this will reduce the stress on the fish and still allow for bacteria build up in the filter. I hope you only have a few very hardy fish in there.

Just out of interest, and not to start a flame war, why do you disagree with fishless cycling? PM me if you don't want to post it here.

Jon

[EDIT: Carbon in the filter helps with smelly water, but it should clear up once the cycles over anyway]

To answer your question - I'm a believer in keeping everything natural. In my view adding chemical ammonia to the water from a bottle just seems... well fake. I know the gravel and plants in my aquarium are fake, but when it comes to the water itself, I like to keep it pretty natural.

I have an undergravel filter - and the bottomfeeder fish and other little guys I have in there were picked specifically to help clean up the waste on the gravel itself... In my view chemical/sponge filtration is also somewhat cheating, heh.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi The-Raven

I've never done anything else but cycle with fish. The idea of dumping a cleaning product into the water just does not sit right with me.

Actually. no one needs a tank to be cycled, but it's definitely convenient not to have to be there to do water changes every day. All the fish really need is clean water, and they don't care how it gets that way.

If you monitor the Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAte level, and do enough water changes to keep them down, it will eventually cycle. The slower it goes the safer it will be for your fish. I would rather do it slowly and surely, than try to hurry it through and endanger my fish just for the convenience of only having to change water once a week.

 

[gaya]

IMHO, taking a fish out of its natural environment is cheating as that is where the only true natural filtration takes place, all else is arbitrary as long as the fish are not in harms way. I've never done a fishless cycle because when i started i bought an established tank so I guess i was lucky. But I have had ammonia spikes due to bacterial treatments and I just did 40% water changes daily until the water was at 0 and all turned out fine.

 

[steelhealr]

Hi..there is no law or containdication to doing a cycle with fish. Doing water changes will definitely help the fish thru this period. It may slow down the nitrification process, but, just means a longer cycle period. I cycled with fish before finding this forum. I lost some fish during the cycle, but, then again, almost all survived. The key is to resist adding those beautiful German Rams before cycling is done and you have a handle on how your water parameters are running. You can see from this forum that people will lose fish even with 'perfect parameters'. Good luck. SH