The new 55

[Ryuu]

So I've been thinking of how I'm going to cycle the tank, I think Ill put used filter media in the new filter, but as for ammonia, my lfs petco has never heard of fishless cycle, hell they never heard of fish there so stupid, but anywho, I was thinking of putting 4 danios in the tank to keep up the bioload. is this ok?

Thanks
Mike

[Fishguy2727]

With mature media you can add fish immediately as long as they do not exceed the bioload that media is used to.

[Ryuu]

Oh ok awesome, I have 2 used media cartrages I can put in, awesome thank you!

[MrDrums]

even if you had no used media, you could put 6-8 danios in a 55 to cycle. That's how I cycled mine....I had no used media - new filter, 8 danios. Uneventful cycle, never even tested the water. After 3 weeks, I did a water change, waited another 3 weeks, then added some new fish. Been fine ever since - been 1 year. Still have 2 danios....3 were eaten by a severum, one killed in a tank cleaning mishap - 2 not sure WHO ate them, 2 going strong.lol

[Fishguy2727]

Once you get up to about that size tank cycling with fish is not AS risky as it is with smaller tanks, which is why fishless is preferred in general. Just to make it clear though, the smaller the tank, the more likely problems will arise with cycling.

[CAllain]

If you have live plants it will help reduce ammonia and nitrites during cycling too...

[OscarFan]

I belive a fish cycle is kinda cruel. Its like putting you in a room with poisones gases that could potentialy kill you. If it doesnt you'll feel like crap. And once you put the media in it aint cycled. It takes time for the bacteria to build up in the water and substrate. All filter media does is help speed it up.

[Fishguy2727]

Not necessarily. 1-any mature media will be able to handle a certain bioload. If you do not put in more fish than that bioload, you instantly cycled for that bioload. For example, let's say I have a 55 with 40 danios in it. The filtration is two Whisper 60s. Each Whisper is acclimated to approximately half the bioload of the tank (twenty danios plus their food). If I remove the media from one Whisper and put it on a new 55 I am setting up, that media is currently capable of handling the bioload of twenty danios. So as long as I do not add more than that bioload there will be no problems. 2-in larger tanks the cycle runs a little differently. The amount of waste produced by four danios in a 55 (for example) may never reach any detectable levels and you can be fully cycled (without any seeding with mature media, gravel, store-bought biological boosters, etc.) without ever detecting any ammonia or nitrite. It is not like putting them in a 10 where any waste will be very concentrated at levels high enough to stress and kill them. This is why it is possible to never go through a formal cycling process with large tanks. When I did my 100 years ago I started with two small oscars and two small pacus. With such a small bioload there were never any detectable levels of ammonia or nitrite before the tank was actually and truly cycled.

It is still better to do a fishless cycle and to stock very slowly, but there are definitely circumstances where fishless cycling is not necessary if the setup is truly done properly.

[tigger1]

Hey all, Me again.

I'm setting up my 55 gal tank, It was a salt water tank so i have the wet/dry syphon drip system for filtration. Ive been trying to do the fishless cycle using the pure ammonia. Its been 4 weeks now and with testing every day the ammonia ranges from 1.0-3.0 (cards are hard to read) and the Nitrites are still showing 0. I did put the sponge filter media from my 10gal into the tank hoping that would speed up the process and also put in that "cycle" stuff from the lfs (didn't have the receipt to take it back so used it). The only thing the tank has done is gotten cloudy. I'm i doing something wrong or is it just that long to do? Do I need to test for anything else besides ammonia and nitrites?

Thanks for the help
Tigger1