Tank Uncycled?

[marieukxx]

The reason for a fishless cycle is to create sufficient headroom so that you can add that many fish at once. The fishless cycle is carried on with 4-5 ppm dosage of ammonia, because that's approximately what a full load in the tank would produce. Adding only 50% or less of that total should be fine.

Sorry I didn't know that.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No need to apologize... this is the beginner's section. (I didn't know it 2 months ago!)



In a fish-in cycle, you add the fish slowly at first, because the filter isn't carrying the bacteria sufficient. Then you continue to add slowly after that to give the colony a chance to grow as the ammonia levels start to rise. In a fishless cycle, you have already cultivated a large colony. After the initial stocking, you should add no more than 50% of your current bioload. For example, if you have 12 fish in the tank, you add up to 6 more. If you had 20, you could add up to 10 more. This can work because the bacteria colony is matured and it really "wants" to grow. And secondly, the ones you are adding from the LFS are juveniles which means they will have a smaller bioload than the full size fish you already have. As the fish grow up, the bacteria will grow with them, and everything should continue without a hitch. (Of course, one would test for a while after introducing the new fish, just to make sure.)


Hope this helps!

 

[marieukxx]

No need to apologize... this is the beginner's section. (I didn't know it 2 months ago!)

Yeah I'm still learning I thought you had to add a few at a time. We learn something new every day

 

[eaglesaquarium]

See above.