Goldie Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 er hem excuse my ignorance (which I would like to rectify) what is fishless cycling? Is it beginning a tank without fish and building up the good bacteria?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 Hi Goldie, Yup... That's what it is There's a recent post by Ira that mentions this... just in the last day or so, about adding ammonia. Not my scene... I prefer the old way and have no probs Regards, Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldie Posted September 27, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 ty Pegasus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 I could not see what the point of it was as I have never had any trouble the old way either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted September 27, 2002 Report Share Posted September 27, 2002 Basically, it's just a way to get the tank totally cycled before you add any fish. Not really worth the time if you can swap a cycled filter or media over. But seems to me if you don't have access to a cycled filter that it's a better method than adding a few fish and keeping an eye on the ammonia, adding a few more, watching the ammonia etc over a month or two. With fishless cycling you add a lot of ammonia constantly to the tank for about 2 weeks then change all the water. Then you'll have a enough bacteria to support as many fish as you want to put in the tank. Basically the only pros and cons I can see are... Fishless cycling: cons, you have to have an empty tank for a few weeks and we all know how hard that is to live with. Pros are that it's relatively easy to cycle, just add a bit of ammonia each day, no risk of losing any fish during the cycle and you can add whatever fish you want as soon as the cycle is complete. Traditional cycle: Cons, harder on the fish, more attention required keeping an eye on ammonia, nitrite and possibly extra water changes to keep it from getting too high, takes a lot longer to cycle. Pros, you can have a few fish in the tank from the start. Ummm...Basically it's a choice between easy but having an empty tank for a while or a little more work but having fish from the start. Disclaimer: I've never actually tried fishless cycling. But if I didn't have heaps of canister filters to steal media from or a friend I could grab some cycled media off of I'd give it a try. Of course, that would require me not finding fish I want and not being able to resist buying them before the fishless cycle is finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew 22 Posted October 3, 2002 Report Share Posted October 3, 2002 One major pro of fishless cyclying is there is no need to 'seed' the bio-filter with media from another tank (as alredy mentioned)., This eliminates the risk of introducing dieases to any incoming fish that your old stock may have. By seeding from an old aquarium you still don`t have high enough bacteria numbers to cope with a hevaly stocked large aquariun, and fishless cyclying can get around this. Personaly i would simply slowly increase the number of fish in the tank over a number of weeks keeping an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels as you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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