Cycling water

[boydiscus]

I have a 3ft tank just with water and a ready 300 litre canister? how do i cycle the tank until its ready for my discus? do i need to buy the good bacteria bottle thingy

[mench]

Do ya have any other tanks with a sponge filter in it??? If so just pop the sponge in your 3ft tank the day before your discus get there,you will be all set.
I have two sponge filter in all my grow out tanks,so I can always set up a new tank anytime I want.just add water,a sponge and wait till the temp is ready and pop in the fish,no fuss,no muss and ya don't have to wait for weeks till the tank is cycled.
If there is one "trick" about fish keeping,then this is the one i would tell all new discus keepers to do,that is if they have other tanks up and running,if not maybe they have a friend that has a sponge they can lend ya till you get some going.
If you don't have any of the above then ya have to cycle it the old way,either with cheap fish,or with "cycle starter" or with ammonia

Mench

[ronrca]

Check out this thread. There is excellant info contained and lots of reading. If you read it all, you will have a firm understanding of the cycle.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=1151

Feel free to ask any questions too! ;)

[Carol_Roberts]

You don't cycle the water - you cycle the filter.

I've not heard of anyone having success with Cycle or similiar products on shelves at fish stores. There is a refrigerated product, (Bio Spira ?) that has been reported to work.

Mench's tip to run the filter in an exisiting tank for a couple of weeks is one I use frequently. Make sure that the tank is free of disease or you will be bringing home trouble.

I've already told you about the fishless cycle.

Read the link Ron posted to help you understand cycling.

[Brian-pdx]

BioSpira from Marineland is great. Expensive, refrigerated (can't buy by mail), hard to find locally, but really works well. I have used it on 2 tanks and fully stocked them in a few days with no ammonia or nitrite spiking. I figured that the extra $10 or so was a sound investment. :) BTW, I had tried 3 different types of cycling bacterial starters previously with my goldfish and never gotten a good biofilter going. BioSpira has only been out for about a year, so I would expect word of mouth to take some time.