cycling with little fish verses big fish

[Deanofreshysalty]

I kind of have a weird question, I have been recently cycling my 150 gallon tank, at first there were four mollys and just recently I came across some very large Pacu fish, i have four the biggest 1 being 22 inches in length, I took them because the guy was going to put them in the local Lake but they ended up being too big, my question, is cycling a tank faster with bigger fish than a lot of smaller fish or is it kind of the same, like when I have the four mollies in there the tanke was fully cycled I believe and then I just put these big guys in there is a going to crash it or just take a little bit too catch up on the bio load, I just wanna know if I'm going to have a lot of fish in my freezer or these guys going to survive I'm actually trying to get rid of them because I'm trying to head to the tropical smaller fish, but I thought I'd save these guys and save my buddy from getting a big ticket, and plus my filter isn't the best right now it's not big enough for these guys I'm trying to modify it so can hold a lot of BB, I only have ammonia strips and my ammonia is about 3. O , so I modify my API modular filter with a whole bunch of pillow stuffing and also my powerhead with a 1 liter bottle and pillow stuffing as well, I have tw moving bed filter but Im not too knowledgeable on those I do not know how long they take to be fully activated, I'm using a 1 liter bottle with and they have been running for about 2 weeks, they definitely seem stressed out and my budget is it looking to save you guys because I figure I could just eat the there's about 30 pounds of fish in the tank, is very cheap and easy way to keep the ammonia down, and keep you guys comfortable, and another question if I take the fish out can I see a doc the same thing with the same water with the whole bunch of smaller tropical fish? thanks for the info

[Cliff]

WOW, that's one long sentence which is kinda hard to read.

You might want to consider re-writing your question(s) in a properly formatted paragraph to make it easier to understand your situation and what you are asking.

I go lost in you sentance, but I think I understand a part of your question(s). Bigger or more fish will produce more ammonia faster which will mean more frequant and larger water changes will be required to keep the fish safe. That might speed it up a little, but there are no guarantees with that

[Honey Badger 1]

Yeah, I didn't read the whole thing either, but what I got was, cycling a 150 gallon with 4 molly's probably didn't really cycle the tank much at all. That is a lot of water to dilute the waste of 4 small fish and what ever bacteria did grow would only support those 4 small fish. Now you are adding 4 very large fish and no way would there be enough bacteria to begin to support those pacu. From here I agree with Cliff, there should be some bacteria and that may speed up the cycle, but you need to stock up on Prime and get ready for a lot of large water changes.

[Rocksor]

You are going to have to do at least 1 50% water change everyday in order to keep the fish safe. And once you start using PRIME, I wouldn't eat those fish.

[KingFisher]

Why would your buddy get a ticket?

[Deanofreshysalty]

okay thank you for the info and I do apologize I go on and on and on once I start talking about all of my problems/ dilemmas in my fish tank lol but I do apologize, and you guys did answer my question, and another question on the water changes, do I need to use the dechlorinater every time I do my water change because that's getting quite expensive, because I have no more and I need to do these water changes to keep these guys going

[Cliff]

Yes, you need to dechlorinate the water each time to remove the chlorine and chloramines (spelling?) from the replacement water or you will kill the bacteria you are trying to grow

[Cermet]

AS for dechlorinator, yes it must be used every time if your water has chlorinated chemicals (not well water.) Otherwise you will kill the fish and filter bacteria.

That said, a 150 gal tank needs water changes only when the ammonia levels go over 0.25 ppm; you have not told us what the water parameters are: so, what is the pH, the ammonia and nitrate levels?

Note I used periods and put spaces between different ideas/sentences - you might try that.

[Deanofreshysalty]

King fisher because each fish and or animal needs to be examine before releasing into the wild, they can bring on parasites and viruses on to other animals

[Lady Hobbs]

He is also quite stupid to even thing of releasing fish into our rivers and streams and mess up our own eco-systems because he doesn't know how to buy proper fish. He'd be better off killing them than killing all others in our lakes.