In Fish Cycle

[nigsy]

Hi all,
Today I have witnessed extreme negligence and ignorance on the part of a LFS but that's really not my question.

A friend of mine set a new tank up last week with no fish, set the filter running and left it. This was on the advice of the LFS, who also reserved 2 medium sized angel fish for the tank telling him it would be alright to put the fish in today (less than a week after setup).

I went with him today to get the fish and took a sample of the water for the shop to test.
Well he did a PH test and surprise, surprise it was 7, bound to be as there was only tap water in the tank, he then said "that's perfect, the fish should be really happy in that!!"
I asked about ammonia testing, nitrate/trite testing and apparently quote "no need for that as long as the ph is ok the fish will be fine?!"

I told my friend to walk away and not buy the fish, but not being as confrontational as me he bought them anyway.

As I have a mature tank, I have given him 1/2 the filter media from mine, and because he has a small tank and filter relative to mine, the media I gave him completely filled his filter.

2 questions:

1. Now he has a filter with a thriving bacterial colony and 2 healthy looking angel fish in the tank; are we into a fish in cycle or will the bacteria in his filter just do their job and all will be well and ready to add some more fish in around 4 weeks?

2. As I have removed 1/2 the media from my tank and replaced it with brand new, should I be worried about a little mini cycle or as my aquarium is well established with good water quality need I worry?


You can take it that the LFS in question will not be seeing any more trade from me or any of my friends again.

 

[Truck]

first question, the bacteria will do their job, and it maybe worth warning him about angels and ther aggressiveness and how big they can grow.

second Q. you will experience a mini cycle, just keep up the water tests and act accordingly

 

[minxfishy]

Provided you kept the filter media wet whilst tranferring into his filter, he should be good to go, although its always wise to test regularly, especially in a newly set up tank and yes, he should then proceed to stock slowly after a few weeks, how large is the tank?

You should be fine in your tank so long as you are not overstocked, the bacteria in your filter should colonise the new media and mulitply sufficiently for you not to get a mini cycle, unless the tank is heavily stocked, in which case, test regularly over the next week and be prepared to do water changes as needed should ammonia or nitrIte rise a little, but providing your media was mature you should be ok. Usually its recommended to use 1/3 of filter media when cloning a new tank, so you have used a little more but IMO unlikely to cause any major issues (again assuming your media is mature).