Guy at the LFS

[Raechal]

I told him I was cycling my 120 gallon with pure ammonia and doing a fishless cycle and he said that it takes way longer than a cycle with fish and that I will end up losing fish in the long run because using ammonia creates a "different" bacteria than what a fish creates.

I thought he was knowledgable at first, but then he tried to sell my mom a PH kit (I already have 3 at home) and some PH buffer to make the PH at 7.0 he said we needed it to add plants right away. My tap water's PH is 7.2...why would I need a buffer to make it 7.0 for plants? So I then kind of thought he really wasn't that knowledgeable. Then he told me I should cycle with fish and stop doing the fishless cycle. I told him I was doing a more aggressive tank with cichlids and he said to use danios to cycle with since they can live through anything and they were ONLY 2.00$ each.

I thought to myself, "2.00 is pretty expensive for feeders..." since my oscar would end up munching them all up if he could catch them. Not to mention the larger cats I was going to get as well.

So...was he correct about ANY of this information? I tried to tell him he was wrong, but he insisted on telling my mom all of this information. Of course she bought into it all and picked up every item he told her she "needed". He made me feel stupid infront of my mom and my boyfriend. He was just telling me I was wrong and stuff.

So...was I wrong?

 

[Paul_MTS]

sounds like he was desperate to make a sale.

in my eyes ammonia is ammonia in what ever form it comes in and there fore produces the same product at the end.....beneficial bacteria.

and having to havr the water at 7 for plants is just stupid unless your very specialised and like the extremly delicate species. if not then you can get away with most PH's, my planted tank is about 7.8

there will probable be some truth in taking longer as with a fishy cycle.

 

[chishnfips]

I honestly don't know I have never heard that before though.

I have heard that you can use danios as they are quite hardy, but I wouldn't say thats better than a fishless cycle. As the danios would (I presume) still be under stress.

Alot of people on here give advice on fishless cycles and it seems to be the best way, but thats my opinion, as I say I am not 100% sure.

 

[Raechal]

sounds like he was desperate to make a sale.

in my eyes ammonia is ammonia in what ever form it comes in and there fore produces the same product at the end.....beneficial bacteria.

and having to havr the water at 7 for plants is just stupid unless your very specialised and like the extremly delicate species. if not then you can get away with most PH's, my planted tank is about 7.8

there will probable be some truth in taking longer as with a fishy cycle.

He said the fishless cycle would take much longer than a cycle with fish. I don't care if it takes longer or shorter, I just don't want to hurt any fish in the process. He said I could pick out some cichlids to cycle my tank with.

I mean, that is my favorite LFS because of the selection of fish they have and how healthy they look...but I guess they aren't very knowledgable. He said I have to buy that PH buffer stuff if I want to put plants in RIGHT away. I have a java fern in there now and my PH is like 8-9 and it is growing fine. It may not be the BEST thing for it, but it was an overgrown clipping from the java fern in my 29 gallon and I figured I would put it in my 120 gallon if it had some "good" bacteria on it or something.

Plus, I'm not putting a whole bunch of plants an anyway because my oscar will probably tear them apart.

 

[Raechal]

He also said that you CAN'T cycle without fish.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I think he's feeding you a line of bull. Every store I've been to around here looks at me like I have two heads when I try to talk to them about fishless cycling. They just don't want to hear about it.

I cycled my first tank with fish and it took 6 weeks. I felt really bad because it was obvious the fish were having a tough time of it. After that I did a ton of research on the fishless cycling and that's what I did for my 55 gallon. It actually took less time (30 days).

I added 8 fish at once after it cycled and they all did well and are still doing well.

So just ignore him and continue on!

 

[SMSBrunetteGirl]

Hope you have your receipt and can exchange,Squirrel is right.That guy really was desperate I think also

 

[canarsie11]

Was he older guy?

Unless you are on the net alot. the fishless cycle is not as well known as one may think. Also it is relatively new idea to the hobby.

I have had a guy (an owner of my best lfs) tell me not same type of bacteria, and he kinda made sense.

He has been in fish business for over 30 years, so I decided just not to engage in convo with him bout fishless cycle anymore.

I respect his input and never steered me wrong with any other advice, so .......

However, I always do the fishless cycle.

 

[Raechal]

Yes he was an older man.

Oh and we didn't buy anything from there except a background for my 120 gal.

 

[BettaMomma]

I was talking to my lfs the other day about doing a fishless cycle and they told me that I really should consider NOT doing a fishless cuz it can take about 2 months. Then he told me to pick up some zebra danios to do the cycling for me because they're hearty. I told him I really wanted to do a fishless cycle and he just huffed and puffed about it and basically told me to figure it out on my own then.

I suppose he figured that if I was going to do it on my own w/out fish that they wouldn't get to sell me anything.

?

 

[Fishy411]

I honestly don't know I have never heard that before though.

I have heard that you can use danios as they are quite hardy, but I wouldn't say thats better than a fishless cycle. As the danios would (I presume) still be under stress.

Alot of people on here give advice on fishless cycles and it seems to be the best way, but thats my opinion, as I say I am not 100% sure.

i cycle my tank with danios but thats just because i have them. THey have cycled 2 tanks so far and are still going strong. I would reccommend doing a Fishless cycle but i always do a cyclie with fish so i dont have to worry about adding ammonia and such

 

[Opcn]

Amonia is not amonia! once it hits water less that 00.00001% of it is amonia its NH4 and OH

There may be some truth to what he said about the buffer, the weak acids and bases in the buffer may help feed some plant, in super soft water plants often don't get enought in the way of CO2 or minerals, flourish is basically a buffer and some plant food.

 

[wrs]

well, if you do have plants, alot of plants, you will not have to cycle because the plants use all the ammonia etc. so he was kinda correct about that.

also, i read that in a magazine

 

[littlefishie]

It just sounds to me like he makes commission on every sale.
As far as I'm concerned, it's BS.
Keep doing your fishless cycle and don't bother with pH adjusted unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

[Angry_Platy]

Cycling is cycling....ammonia is ammonia.....I have done both and they roughly took about the same time.

NO FISH imho should be used for cycling....it is cruel and unnecessary. I don't care how hardy the fish are, danios, feeders whatever....it is WRONG!!!