New aquarium, fish or fishless ?

[Diablito]

Hello everybody, new here and new to aquariums.

I've been reading alot lately and getting mixed messages.


The tank is up, i have a couple of plants and everything looks good so far, been running for 3-4 days now.

Got the Juwel 60 starter sett.

so... Should I buy a couple of cheap guppy's (read that they are good and sturdy beginners fish) and start right away so the filters get amonia and so on, or let the aquarium set and go the "fishless" way ? (I find the fishless way to look very hard, and more expencive with all the testing, or am I comfused?)

and if i should go for the fishless way, should i change the water? if so, how much, how often?

going to buy a watertesting sett on monday, and maybe guppy's aswell, depending on what i get of advice here :)

last question before i press submit: air-pump /air stone and so on, what is it good for and do i need one ?


Thanks in advance, and sorry for my bad english :)

[salman]

Put a few cheap fish for it to finish cycling, for like 3 or 4 days and then add the fish you really want to add.

But test the water, you should have
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0

If they arnt all 0's your fish could get sick and even die within a few hours.

Fish need oxygen, and the air pumps give them oxygen.

[modster]

I dont think 3 or 4 days will do the trick. Fishless cycle doesn't cost that much more. If you are actually serious about this fish keeping thing, you would need to get a test kit anyway. Besides that, you only need to find some ammonia. It doesn't cost more than 2 dollars, but the real problem is finding it.

You dont have to change water when you are doing fishless cycle.

[dev]

Salman: The people here are not used to cycling with 0 values, I've given up explaining it :D (Oh, and zero nitrates is no good for a cycled tank, I dont like it to be less than 10 ppm)

Diablito: Fishless seems the way to go. You don't have to test all that much. Just add ammonia for 5 days, then add half the dosage for a week or so, and finally do some tests to make sure everything is ok. Oh, and guppies are terrible starter fish.

During a fishless cycle you don't do any water changes until the end, just before you put your fish in. If you cycle with fish you need to test for ammonia and nitrites and do water changes as needed.

If you are not doing a planted tank an air pump/air stone can provide extra oxygenation. The included pump in Rekord 60 does normally allow for enough surface movement, so an air pump should not be required.

[Diablito]

Thanks for the answers :)

how much amonia should i put in ?, and dev: whats wrong with guppy's?
any other fish to recommend ?

[Lady Hobbs]

Danio's are probably the best starter fish but really, there are no good starter fish. It takes a while for those fish to give off the amount of ammonia you can add in 3 seconds. Why wait days and days for a cycle to even began when it can start right away.

No messing around with water changes, either. You can fishless cycle in about 10-12 days. With fish it can take 3 weeks......and longer.

[Diablito]

then its fishless, getting testkit on monday and no fish.

but im still unsure on how much to put in of amonia.. dropped inn about 4-5 drops just now (read it somewhere, cant remember where), is it to much ? to little ?

thanks again, exellent forum :)

[modster]

There are no absolute rules for fishless cycle. I have seen people who add enough to make 5ppm ammonia the first day and people who add like 50 drops a day for a few days. However you want to do it, just dont add too much (lets just say above 8ppm, thats the max reading of my test kit). Here is the thread that teach you how to do it. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
Another one [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Kuli_Loach]

2 or 3 ways to cycle tanks. I have mostly done it the fishless way but I am starting to do it with fish so I got something to look at. It ain't as good and it is hard on the fish but truthfully, not trying to put any of ya'll down and yes it ran for a week and half with only feeder guppies, my fish are doing fine. It may have cycled early, I don't know.

[Diablito]

ok, thanks for the tips.

testing on monday and see whats gonna be the next step :)


and the petstore personel sux :P only advice i got was "run the tank for a week without fish" ... :P

[Lady Hobbs]

Another way to cycle even better is to buy BioSpira. It's kept refrigeratored in many fish stores. (Not on the shelves at Walmart.) You add it to your tank at the same time you add some fish and have a cycle in about 3 days. It cost a bit.....around $20.....but if you want a quickly cycled tank it's the way to fly.

It's hard to find the pure ammonia for some. Make sure it has no additives like lemon, etc. I was able to find mine at Dollar Stores. Hard to find it at the big local chains as they have all the junk with the additives.

It's about 5 drops per gallon but with this stuff it doesn't need to be precise. Too little you can add more. Too much you don't need to add again for a day or two longer.

[Diablito]

thanks :) i have pure amonia, and by the smell of it, the filter seems to taking it away from the water.

gonna see tomorrow what the test says :) :19:

[Lady Hobbs]

Remove the charcoal!

Had to correct this one!!!!

[Diablito]

what ?

ive been led to belive that it was the filter, connected to the pump that developed the bacteria, that was good for the tank... soo.. a little confused..

[Kuli_Loach]

Don't worry, I am confused as well.

[Lady Hobbs]

I should have explained better. The charcoal is what I meant. Only the charcoal. Of course use the filter. Sorry!

You mentioned you felt the filter was taking away the ammonia and I suspect the charcoal in the filter may be doing this and using charcoal now is only wasting. You could use a big old glob of filter floss and save your charcoal filters for now.

Thank you for screwing my head on straight!

Turn your heat all the way up and aerate the tank if you have an air pump. Bacteria just loves heat and oxygen to get growing well.

[dev]

Ah yes, sorry I forgot to mention it earlier. You should remove any black (carbon) and perhaps any green (nitrate removal) sponges from your filter while cycling. Use only the white poly pad and the blue filter sponges, you might even want to buy an extra blue sponge and save the black one for removing medications etc

The green one will absorb nitrates for a time, but can be left in the filter and will work as a normal blue sponge.

[Diablito]

i see, understand now :) (cant remeber reading this in any of the guides.. maybe im not reading well enough.. :/ )

thanks btw :) and done :)

[Kuli_Loach]

Ahhh!! Now I am learning as well!!!

[Lady Hobbs]

i see, understand now :) (cant remeber reading this in any of the guides.. maybe im not reading well enough.. :/ )

thanks btw :) and done :)

I will make a correction in the article I wrote regarding fishless cycling as well. A point that was over looked. Thanks a bunch.

[dev]

I might add that this colour coding of the sponges is valid only for Juwel filter media. Other makes may use different colours and have other types of media for chemical filtering.

[Diablito]

:19:

good help here :)