Maidenhead Aquatics.

[Smells a bit fishy]

I have just been browsing through maidenhead aquatics and saw about fish-less cycling. I'm amazed lol. Finally a fish shop that accepts a fishless cycle is the best way to cycle a tank.

I'm heading down to own of their brancheson Sunday so I may ask, seen as I'm not buying any fish, what's the best way to set up a tank.

I'll let you know how I get on

 

[nurglespuss]

Fair enough.
I don't think there is a 'best' way to cycle a new tank. I've always Cycled with fish/plants and never lost a fish during cycle in 20 years

 

[MBOU]

I hate the idea of fish in cycles, it might not kill the fish but i dont feel the need to make them suffer either because there *will* be ammonia and nitrite in there as the tank cycles and it can damage the fish, certainly make them uncomfortable.

Personally, i dont like Fish In cycling and i spend so much time looking after fish and caring for them that i would happily refuse to sell fish so someone that hasnt cycled their tank.

There has been the odd occasion where a customers tank has refused to cycle any further (no ammonia but slight Nitrite at .25 etc) where i may have 'lent' or sold them a couple of fish like Black Widows because some tanks just wont complete the cycle despite restarting the cycle several times.

But if someone came in telling me they wanted to do a fish in cycle, id ask them why? If you can do it without.... why would you want to do it?

Everything i have learnt about fish has been from working for MA, i never kept fish beforehand. I am happy that we arent to sell fish to an uncycled tank, although there arent any rules, its suggested and most peoples opinions are that fish in cycles are unecessary.

 

[maisy12345]

When i bought my tank from maidenhead aquatics,the chap there told me to fill my tank up ,leave it for a week,after adding filter aid,then empty 20 percent of water and add water from old tank ,and run both filters on or add filter media to new filter if i preferred,[only said this after i asked if i could do it instead of adding both filters,surely adding both filters to a tank won`t cycle your new filter?

 

[soybean]

A member of staff at one of my nearby MAs couldn't understand why I was talking about adding pure ammonia to a tank, told me I needed fish to cycle, and tried to sell me zebra danios...

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Mixed reviews. It seems to be which branch you go to depends on how good the knowledge is.

I guess it's down to the person that serves you I suppose. You could get 'lucky'.

Well I'm going up there tomorrow so I will see what happens with my local one

 

[StandbySetting]

I've never done a fishless cycle, they just encourage Algae in planted set ups, I've always done a 'silent cycle', essentially a fish in cycle but with plants, the plants utilise most of the ammonia, any excess can be removed with a water change, I don't usually test anyway, I just do the water changes as a precautionary measure, as well as a step towards preventing algae.

Seems good though that MA are advising fish-less cycles over fish-in cycles these days, but still I'd like to hear the 'silent' cycle method spoke about more often.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

But doesn't the silent cycle require alot more know how in regards to a high tec planted tank?

I was just surprised as apart from on here no one has heard of a fishless cycle

 

[StandbySetting]

Not particularly, they can be done on Low Tech tanks too but a bit of knowledge is required, it's no harder than performing a fishless cycle, the Walstad method is an excellent way of showing how efficient plants are at filtering ammonia, obviously your initial stocking is low, but you gradually add to that in the same way you would a fish in cycle.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

But a fishless cycle is safer for the fish though isn't it? As then there is no risk of anything going wrong. Or is that me being over cautious?

 

[StandbySetting]

A silent cycle is pretty safe, if I were to test my tank now, which I will and will report back with results in a second, I'm betting I've got all 0's, I'm currently silent cycling it.

 

[StandbySetting]

Just tested with the Salifert kits, I added 6 Hyphessobrycon amandae 2 weeks ago, added another 6 of them 3 days ago, these are my parameters:

Ammonia 0, nitrite 0.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Oh ok. Fair enough. That's far easier than doing a fish in or fish-less cycle. I may ask about silent cycling when oho in aswell. Just to see if they are clues up

My tank is still cycling. So what plants and how many do I need to finish off my cycle?

 

[StandbySetting]

It's not a case of just bunging in plants and hoping they do all the work, having an understanding of the Light, nutrient and CO2 relationship is important, light controls all factors, the more light you add, the faster the plants grow, the more nutrients they require and the more CO2 they require, for a silent cycle you ideally want at least 70% substrate coverage with plants, and you'll want a few fast growers, generally stem plants such as Hygrophila polysperma.

The main nutrient plants require is generally a form of Nitrogen, this is needed for building cells primarily, plants will readily uptake ammonia over nitrate as it is easier for them to process, hence why they make excellent biological filters, also nitrifying bacteria on the leaves of the plants, as well as nitrogen fixing bacteria on the roots will also utilise ammonia.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hence why a fishless cycle is MUCH easier (even if it is slower) for beginners (like me).