What Is Cycling A Tank?

[bluesword23516]

What is cycling a tank? And use common words, I'm not a huge fish person, I have bred guppies for a while and am switching to mollies fairly soon.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Cycling a tank means to get your tank ready with good bacteria in your filter and tank for the fish waste that they produce, ammonia, nitrite and nitrates, these are toxic to fish and stocking.
 
So we need the bacteria to convert these toxic elements in water to be safe for fish to live in.
 
Fishless cycle is recommend by everyone really.
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/

 

[bluesword23516]

I have never done this before.  But I am planning on changing my 30 gallon into a molly project.  It used to have fish with worms.  I know I need to clean it before I can put them in.  What should I do to get rid of the worms? I have a few fish that appear to not have it, but they will be put in a separate tank when the ones who are infected die (or are euthanized) 

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

To clean the tank from the worms I would use a very diluted bleach solution. Throw away filter media and make sure to rinse well. Like, really well. Then dry everything and rinse again
 
Breeding mollies isnt a good hobby for a 30g tank. Only 10 can fit in at most without overstocking the tank, and since they are livebearers they can have lots of fry and very rapidly.
 
Instead of breeding maybe just have a community tank. They are very rewarding and very easy if you get the right fish.
 
What other fish and how many of them do you have? What size tank are you going to put them in? This will help greatly on what you can do with them.

 

[bluesword23516]

I have had livebearers before and plan on selling fry. I have done community before but I have also been thinking about female betta tank.

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

A "sorority" is a very hard tank. You would need to cycleit, make sure the female bettas will get along, learn about introducing etc. I will tell wildbetta (she is the mod of bettas here) about this post so she can inform you more. She breeds bettas and can tell you more about sororities and female bettas.

 

[bluesword23516]

I have already talked to her about it.  It has been one of my new ideas.