hey guys, I was just wondering what this actually does and why it's important to start doing something like this before getting fishes.

Thanks for the info.

The idea behind fishless cycling is to save fish from stress after being added to a new tank that has not been cycled. I am not a fan of it myself but it is the latest fad in the UK and everyone seems to be doing it. Personally I see nothing wrong with adding a few hardy fish and slowly building up the bioload to match the increasing resulting good bacteria in the filter. A lot easier and no messing about. If done correctly there is no harm done to the fish.

The fishless cycle followers create a cycle by adding ammonia rather than using fish waste. They then claim you can add the full complement of fish faster, and without a spike in the bioload. I still don't see how they can work out how much ammonia is required to equal X amount of fish poo so they know how many fish their bioload can handle :-?

well i guess the guppies are the hardiest fishes u can find so guppies into new tank and that's it for me then... no need to waste time on fishless cycling...

Guppies these days are not hardy. I would use danios

Remember the key is to add a few fish to start with. This can vary depending on the size of the tank. How many litres in your tank?

looking to do 50-60 litres to start off with?

I guess that is about a 60cm x 30 x 30 tank? I would start with no more than 6 danios in it. Leave them there a month, with the filter running 24/7, before you add any more fish. Do a 10% - 20% water change once a week too.

Have to say the quality of Guppys these days is nothing like it used to be, every Guppy I buy from the Pet Shop dies,

Not sure what is up with them, go all bent and buckled after a month or so, given up on them now

I would go with the Danios like Caryl said, they're a hardy wee fish

Just remember give your tank some time, I know we are all very tempted to fill the Tank up with Fishys, but it's definitely worth while waiting untill your Tank Cycles properly.

When I first went into keeping Fish, more than 10 years ago now, I was never told by the person at the Petshop, that I had to cycle my Tank, ended up losing lots of $$$$ worth of Fish :oops:

Good Luck

Lynda

oooo ok ok.... i wasn't thinking of getting the guppies from the pet store as i do know that their quality is quite bad in some places. was thinking of getting it from a breeder off the forums.

i bought 3 guppies 6 weeks ago from a petstore.

They dropped them in the shop and still sold them to me. One of them was a male when it was supposed to be a female so i took it back the next day and let them know that the other male at home had bloated up that night.

The one that had bloated up was fine the next day but two weeks later was clearly unwell and I isolated it and discovered he had callamanus worms.. the timing would mean he was infected before I got him as I started with a fresh tank. He didn't make it and died while I was waiting for the hard to get levamisole treatment (in the form of aviverm). He was a very nice looking guppy and my daughters first tropical so it was a bit devastating.

The other two are fine and the female has had fry.

Anyway, I am now avoiding buying guppies form a petshop, especially livebearers which seem to be hit by nasty worms more often. Petshops will be my last resort for new guppies.

Terrible experience...sorry for the losses!

Caper