Fastest Way To Cycle A Tank

[Rick_May]

Peter,
I wouldn't consider the pond as a option. You just dont know what kind of bugs ore living in it. with a pond being in the open anything could have hitched a ride, and is now happly living in your pond.

[Paulio]

Im with Randal. I change water so fast around here that in *most* situations it isnt a big deal. If you are planning on heavy bio load the media will still need to cycle more once it is under the increased load. Change water. lots of water and often.

Paul

[ronrca]

Agree with not using the pond as established media for the reasons mentioned by Rick!

[Alan]

[quote author=ronrca link=board=1;threadid=14193;start=0#147470 date=1069253423]
What kind of fish did you put in the tank btw?
Did you test for ammonia/nitrite levels?
[/quote]

It was a Q tank and I put discus in it. I didn't test for ammonia levels anymore.

Unfortunately, I haven't "streamlined" my quarantine procedure at the time and I may have OD'ed 3 of the fish with met that may have caused a chemical reaction with the melafix that I put in the tank for the 1st week (I put carbon for about 4 days but I think I didn't do enough WC). :'( Nowadays, my Q procedure is just high heat and high salt the first week and watch for symptoms for the next 5 weeks.

I did the same "cycling" procedure with a 40 gallon tank prior to the 29 gallon QT but I put in the fish 24 hours after I put in the water. The fish I put in were cichlids and oscars. These fish are doing well, except the oscars have killed some of their tankmates :-X Also, I didn't do any quarantine procedure on the 40 gallon tank since I've had the fish for quite a while. I just needed to transfer them to the new tank.

[Alan]

[quote author=RandalB link=board=1;threadid=14193;start=0#147477 date=1069254528]
Don't cycle the tank. It will cycle itself over time. Light fish load and WC WC WC WC WC. I haven't cycled a tank in over a year. The filters eventually catch up and you're good to go.
JMHO,
RandalB
[/quote]

I agree with Randal. If you're going to do significant WC's everyday, there's no chance for ammonia/nitrate/nitrite to build up. There's really no rational to cycle the tank.

[ronrca]

If you're going to do significant WC's everyday, there's no chance for ammonia/nitrate/nitrite to build up.

Yes you will! Believe me, Im talking from experience! I had 12 2" discus in a 30G tank, 50-75% wc's everyday with aged water! I was fighting ammonia levels in the first week and nitrite levels for 2 weeks after that. Thank goodness for Prime! And this 30G did have an established fitler. The bio was just too small since I had 2 5" discus attempting to breed in before.

Unless you are really understocked and do wc's every 6 hours, ammonia and nitrites will build up over the coarse of the day. Feces and leftover food is not the only thing that causes ammonia. Fish respiration also expel ammonia.

[Alan]

[quote author=ronrca link=board=1;threadid=14193;start=15#147908 date=1069424257]
I had 12 2" discus in a 30G tank, 50-75% wc's everyday with aged water! I was fighting ammonia levels in the first week and nitrite levels for 2 weeks after that. Thank goodness for Prime! And this 30G did have an established fitler. The bio was just too small since I had 2 5" discus attempting to breed in before.
[/quote]

I did underline "significant WC's everyday." ;D

Maybe it's the water where you live or something else in the water that caused the ammonia spike in the first week. But here's a post from Jeff in another thread:

[quote author=Jeff link=board=1;threadid=13980;start=0#144861 date=1068325886]
Good question Gary. Some things I'm not sure the US is ready for. On my trip I visited over 20 farms. The farms in Singapore are much smaller than the farms in Malaysia. I was told that Malaysia has over 100 discus farms. Several farms in Malaysia had over 500 tanks. The one thing I noticed the most is they only feed a beefheart/seafood/vitamin mix. No flake, no BW, and no live food. Second most farms change water 2x daily and some 3x. Third because of the frequent wcs none of them use any filters at all!!! Just airstones. Fourth they believe in packing the tanks heavier than we do. They say it promotes faster growth and less runting.

If anyone else has any questions I can answer ask away. Remember its just my opinion and I usually don't hold back. I call it like I see it. ;D
[/quote]

[ronrca]

Maybe it's the water where you live or something else in the water that caused the ammonia spike in the first week.

Probably not as Im still doing daily 50% wc's and not problems, 0 ammonia/nitrite. I did have readings of ammonia/nitrite when I introduced the 12 discus so despite the wc's, the bio still had to cycle! I just would not recommend anyone particularly beginners not to cycle their tanks! Just asking for trouble! Id rather be safe than sorry with my discus!

I did underline "significant WC's everyday."

Significant being.....? 100% twice or three times a day? Well, that very well could be a different story! I wouldnt necessary call that significant! More like .....like insane or something! LOL!

[Alan]

[quote author=ronrca link=board=1;threadid=14193;start=15#148022 date=1069447159]
Significant being.....? 100% twice or three times a day? Well, that very well could be a different story! I wouldnt necessary call that significant! More like .....like insane or something! LOL!
[/quote]

50% to 70% daily WC worked for me in my new QT.

As for the 100%, the wild discus export farms in South America are doing it. I guess they're insane. And everyone's buying the discus from them, so I guess everyone's insane. LOL!

[lesley]

I would have to second ronrca's experience here, whereby the one time I tried to control the nitrites by water changes (I didn't put in enough filter material to start off a bigger tank, and I couldn't get Biro-Spira in my part of the world) my fish had massive problems. I had raised them from babies and they were being moved to a bigger tank. They had always loved water changes and you had to be careful not to syphon them up!! After their experiences during this traumatic period where I couldn't keep the nitrites down even with two 90% changes per day they have never been the same during water changes - they always go to the corner and mutter quietly! It took a week to get on top of it and some weeks for the nitrites to work out of their systems and for them to behave normally. I recently lost one that had stopped growing during this period and I feel that it was due to damage from the high nitrites.

When I put this group into their final 6' planted tank, I started it off with everything little bit of gunk that I could squeeze out of my filters in my other tanks and it worked perfectly. They were never "quite right" in this middle tank and I shifted them straight into the 6' when it was set up because of this. They went almost immediately back to their old relaxed selves and I had NO cycling problems.

I would think that if you have perfect water at the right temperature and a setup where your new water is gently replacing your old continually, it would be great. How many of us have that??? Certainly not me!! If you are not matching your water parameters exactly then the large changes are also adding additional stress.

Just my personal experiences.

Lesley

[Alan]

Hi Lesley,

First you agree with ronrca then you go for perfect water ;D

Anyway, your "dream" set-up is being done by a lazy guy named Anand. ;D This doesn't have to do with cycling anymore but a tank set-up. It's called a continuous drip. It doesn't have to be perfect water, too. ;D Here's the link:

http://daah.info/forum/index.php?boa...d=3580;start=0


Alan

[Nightowl]

I have experienced what both ronrca and Lesley have experienced: in a new, not properly cycled tank of discus( or other fish as well), changing large amounts of water when nitrites were high did not eliminate them from the water. Yes, it helps to lower them but they go up again, and its risky business. Fortunately, discus are strong fish and can take some of that. Do you know what would happen to a tankful of Rams or Cardinal tetras? they'd be dead. If you don't believe me, try it .
As far as general water changes go, am I the only person that does NOT change 50% in every tank every day?I'd like to know.
Getting to original question on thread: Bio-Spira.
J.T.

[Rosskeegan24]

New to discus keeping, how do i keep the nitrates down during the first week of the fish being in the tank ?

[Lido]

Pee pee in the water, add bacteria. Wait 24 hours add fish.


Really don't do that...

The best way has been said 15 times, filter media from another tank.

[rickmiles]

Put a few "Evolution Aqua Pure Pond" balls in the inside of the sponge filter, then add discus/fish it works great.

Rick Mileski Sr