Cycling a large tank (75g)

[johnhammond]

Off to get a 75g tank tomorrow - a new home for my goldfish (at last). Been reading up on cycling and I'm a bit confused. I've seen a lot of posts that say cycling a big tank isn't really necessary - especially a planted one.

If I get my 75g with a few plants will I still need to cycle it before adding the fish? I was wondering whether or not I could just add my 2 black moors (2 inches each) with a bunch of gravel from their established tank, and just keep an eye on the water quality for a few weeks before adding the other 2 (6 inch fantail and 3 inch telescope).

Makes sense to me to do it that way, but then it made sense to me to put 2 goldfish in a 12g tank so clearly just making sense to me isn't a good test of whether or not something is a good idea :hmm3grin2orange:

[sushicat]

welli dont much either (im a newbie too ;) but you can fishless cycle with pure ammonia but i also read about doing a silent cycling by planting your tank i might be wrong..lol

[OscarFan]

u still need to cycle the tank before u add fish. Even with gravel and plants it takes a month or more to fully cycle..

[labnjab]

I cycled my 55 gallon goldfish tank with seeded filter media (had them in my other tanks for a month or so) and some gravel from other tanks. I also used 8 feeders because they were cheap and i could take them back when i was done (i would use more in a 75) before i added my fancies and was cycled fairly quickly.

[cocoa_pleco]

if you add enough live plants you dont need to cycle since the plants take in the ammonia

[johnhammond]

Thanks for the replies. I have the filter media in my existing tanks now.

I figure it'll take me a couple of weeks to get the tank ready, and then I'll transfer the media over to the filter on the new tank and move over 2 (2 inch) black moors. Give them a week and make sure the water stays in good shape, and then move over my other 2 fancies.

I'll probably have a lightly planted tank (maybe 7 or 8 new plants in there to start with), so I figure that the plans and the seeded media should see me through without any drama.

Fingers crossed :-)