Hiya folks.
I recently ordered a 35L Arcadia Arc tank to put on my home office desk with the intention of putting a few sunset platys in it to keep me company when I'm working. Whilst I'm waiting for it to arrive I've been doing some reading up here and its raised some questions. I've purchased a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle since I was informed this would be a good way of kick starting my tanks eco-system but after reading more about tank cycling I'm a bit confused. From what I can tell from the blurb on the bottle, Nutrafin Cycle claims to include the bacteria needed to metabolise ammonia and nitrites which it adds directly to your tank and that you can add fish immediately to your tank when using this. I'm not very happy about the idea of adding fish until I'm sure the conditions are correct however, I've already got a testing kit for this purpose and would prefer to create a suitable environment first rather than relying on fish to establish the environment. What I'm wondering is whether Cycle also contains ammonia to feed the bacteria you're adding/growing in the tank or does it rely on the addition of fish to create the needed ammonia?
Also if I was to follow the fishless cycling guides here (which is what I will do if Cycle by itself is insufficient), will adding the Cycle as well speed up the process? Also will that effect the levels of ammonia I need to add, particularly if the Cycle already contains some?
I recently ordered a 35L Arcadia Arc tank to put on my home office desk with the intention of putting a few sunset platys in it to keep me company when I'm working. Whilst I'm waiting for it to arrive I've been doing some reading up here and its raised some questions. I've purchased a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle since I was informed this would be a good way of kick starting my tanks eco-system but after reading more about tank cycling I'm a bit confused. From what I can tell from the blurb on the bottle, Nutrafin Cycle claims to include the bacteria needed to metabolise ammonia and nitrites which it adds directly to your tank and that you can add fish immediately to your tank when using this. I'm not very happy about the idea of adding fish until I'm sure the conditions are correct however, I've already got a testing kit for this purpose and would prefer to create a suitable environment first rather than relying on fish to establish the environment. What I'm wondering is whether Cycle also contains ammonia to feed the bacteria you're adding/growing in the tank or does it rely on the addition of fish to create the needed ammonia?
Also if I was to follow the fishless cycling guides here (which is what I will do if Cycle by itself is insufficient), will adding the Cycle as well speed up the process? Also will that effect the levels of ammonia I need to add, particularly if the Cycle already contains some?