Fishless Cycling And Ammonia Out?

[Tommy Gunnz]

Andy,

I hate to sound like I am constantly disagreeing with people here, but I wanted to point out that the good bacteria one needs to establish in order to have a cycled tank is not usually found in the water itself but rather in the substrate, decorations, and biofiltration media and so I do not think that by just adding water from another, established tank would help all that much other than to bring some nitrates to the new tank. Also, I would caution anyone who would want to put a time limit on how long it would take in order to cycle a tank since there are just so many variables to consider before being able to predict this.

Again, I dont mean to sound like I am trying to be a 'know it all' or to put down anyone else's input and I appologize for appearing to do so in this case.

 

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Thanks all for the info. I am showing 6-8ppm ammonia, so I am going to wait and see if it cycles.

And to add to the "snake oil" perception, I went back and looked more closely at the Jungle Water Safe Plus, and the Jungle Ammonia Clear. They are the same d%^n product, except the Ammonia Clear has the added chenicals to detoxify the ammonia! So I effectively dosed my tank with twice the dechlorinator I needed too! And the packaging on the Water Safe Plus even suggests that you use the Ammonia Clear as well! Oy ve.

 

[Paul+B]

I've just come back to keeping tropical fish, someone gave me the tank and set up, he had just been given a four foot tank.
Never heard about cycling the tank before, although I did appreciate that I needed bacteria,
I had to remove the gravel etc from my (new to me) tank to carry it, I only gave the gravel quick rinse, there was also some slate from his new tank that he didn't want so I added this too, I also put in a lot of plants to absorb nutrients from the water for when the fish were in.

I left my tank a week to settle in before adding the fish (all very small fish young nions etc) I have an under gravel filter running, also a fluval filter. All is looking good.

and now to the point
Could I have got away with the cycling (hopefully) becouse the bacteria is in the gravel/slate, also the external filter he gave me still had some water in it.
The fish look happy and the water is gin clear

wish I'd found this forum first

 

[Underwurlde]

Tommy is right of course - sometimes I am too literal with my posts. Sometimes too generic....