Fishless Cycling

[Colonel Mustard]

I've read this page about fishless cycling and i was wondering whether there is another way to cycle without making your tank go brown and doing a 90 % water change
if anyone knows of an alternative method i would be grateful if you would let me know
thanks

 

[aaronc]

Hi Colonel

It depends if you have live plants, if not, you can keep the tank dark and this will reduce the algae blooms

Aaron

 

[Colonel Mustard]

thanks Aaron but i do have real plants

i have treated the water with Nutrafin Cycle, which is ment to introduce SOME bacteria

 

[aaronc]

I hate to be synical, but dont bother with those products, they make no real difference.

You would better off getting your hands on some filter material from a mature tank. Do you know anyone, or have an LFS that is willing to donate?

This will speed your cycle up big time.

As for the algae, I think you are going to have to put up with it whilst cycling. After you have done the water change at the end it will likely die off, if you have plenty of competing plants. It is also a great excuse to get some shrimps to munch it all up

Aaron