what fish to cycle a big tank?

[Paul_MTS]

once i'ved set up my tank and built a stand plumbed the sump in etc i'm wondering how i should go about cycling.

seeing as i can't use the my usual cyclers some platty juvvy's seeing as the tanks 850litres and i don't think they will crap enough!!

i was thinking adding a small oscar first, there pretty hardy aren't they?

 

[Discomafia]

Why not just go with a school of zebra danios?

 

[CFC]

Why cycle the tank at all? As you already have existing cycled tanks you can just do a filter cloning. Take half the media from each of your existing filters (replacing it with new media) and sandwich it between the media in the new filter, then add a couple of fish right away and you will never see a ammonia or nitrite spike as the media will be instantly colonised by the bacteria. Remember to add fish slowly for the first 6 months until the new filter is fully established and the tank has matured.

I have never cycled another tank since setting up our first one.

 

[Dubby]

I dont believe it has to do with the amount of crap its the presence of Ammonia which causes the bacteria to grow.

If you already have an old tank then simply add some gravel from that into the new tank.

EDIT: Looks like CFC beat me to it

 

[jimbooo]

i've just cycled my 180 Litre with 6 zebra danio's and a plec after 2 weeks.

no problems at all just did a h2o change after 2 weeks

tanks been running for 6 weeks now and no nitrite or ammonia spikes have occured.

massive tank you have there, cool i wish my floor boards could take that weight.

 

[Paul_MTS]

I'll have to take the rings out of my 204 to get it going then, i guess i'll just leave them in for about a month then put them back as i wasn't planning to use them.

luckily the room where it's going was built about 6 years ago and has solid concrete floors so no such problem with the weight issue!!

although which are the best fish to add first?

 

[CFC]

Ceramic rings are not the best media to use for cloning a tank, these are for large mechanical filtration and do not hold much in the way of bacteria. The best media to use for bacteris transfer is sponges or one of the specially designed biological medias like efisubstrat pro or alfagrog.

You can add whatever fish you like first as there will not be any ammonia or nitrite spikes.

 

[Paul_MTS]

yer it has the bio rings aswell, i'ved already bagged up 1 lot to put in my rekord 70 to cycle that one!! I should beable to nick the ones out of a 304 filter at work, i cant see just mine will be enough!

i have alfa grog ready to put in this new tank about 5 gallons worth of the stuff!!

I guess i'll start with the fish i can get me hands on the fastest then!! fire eel and an oscar.

 

[rvm]

Why cycle the tank at all? As you already have existing cycled tanks you can just do a filter cloning. Take half the media from each of your existing filters (replacing it with new media) and sandwich it between the media in the new filter, then add a couple of fish right away and you will never see a ammonia or nitrite spike as the media will be instantly colonised by the bacteria. Remember to add fish slowly for the first 6 months until the new filter is fully established and the tank has matured.

I have never cycled another tank since setting up our first one.

Totally agree. I've not cycled any of my tanks since the first one, not even the Zebra Plec one, and that is populated with about £300 of fish!!
Since you know that it is going to be set up, go and get yoursef a load of bio media (whichever you prefer) and cram any filters you can with it that are already established. It should be prettty well populated by the time you get the tank set up and means you're not leaving your other tanks short of media.

 

[technium]

sorry to hijack this thread paul but sort of relates to this.

When cycling the tank does the water have the be heated, I mean can I have the tank running with my old filter media in but not have the heaters set up or should you really have the heaters set up aswell? does it make any difference to speed of cycling?

 

[jimbooo]

hi technium,

not that i'm an expert but at school i learnt that heat is the simplest catalist in any biological echosystem. i would imaging that the bacteria will feed and multiply faster as the temp increaces to the point where they get too hot and die.

so in answer to your question yes the bacteria will grow faster with the heater on.

but as i said this is a theoretical answer, not through experience.

 

[Paul_MTS]

what a top idea rvm i hadn't thought of doing that only thing is i only have 1 external filter i can cram it with!! the rest are all internals, although sticking a load in my rekord 70 housing would get some bacteria going.

Yep i would agree, bacteria at low temperatures are quite inactive as you raise the temperature you come across the optimum bacteria multiplication speed then after that you start killing them!! I have 2 brand spankers 300W lined up, the ones that came with it had cracked tubes inside so I'm trying to return them.

i'll give the alfa grog a rinse tonight and stick it in a few filters.

 

[Matty]

Use some raptor tetras to help cycle that tank