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I set up my 55G on October 19th, when will it be fully cycled? Should I add some hearty fish to it? If so which fish? Its killing me to just sit here and watch it...with nothing in it Anyways input is always welcome!!

Alright well first off the tank will not cycle if there is no ammonia source. There are two methods of cycling a tank: fishless, and stocked. I recommend fishless just because you do not put fish in any danger with this method.

A fishless cycle you use adead prawn(drayfish) that you can purchase in the seafood area of you grocery store. drop it in the tank and the decomposition will give you tons of ammonia. the drawback is of course that it can produce quite an odor and you will ahve a decaying organism in your tank.

the second method is using household ammonia, which can also be purchased at a grocery store in the cleaning supply area. Make sure that it is pure ammonia, it should be colorless and not be scented. simply add some to your tank to bring the ammonia concentration to 20ppm or somewhere around there.

you willneed a test kit for the cycling process as you are going to have to test for ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes. Bacteria in the water column will decompsoe the ammonia to nitrite, growing in number, these bacteria will initially be in your water(ad are always in small concentration) but the bulk will attach themselves to gravel and filtermedia. Your nitrites will begin to rise and other bacteria will begin to convert it to nitrAte. The cycle will end after ammonia and nitrItes reach 0ppm. it is then safe to add some fish.

HTH,
Megil.

The third method is to use a commercial product, in particular Bio Spira. This contains live bacteria and their food. Follow the “seeding” instructions and continue with the process until ammonia is 0, nitrites are very low, and nitrates start to rise.

This is by far the fastest way to cycle an aquarium (besides the utilization of pre-seeded media like filters, gravel, etc).

Ingo

And yes, you need test kits for all 3 to clearly identify when the cycle is done.

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I was able to take a water sample right the local fish store.. they tested it for me and told me when it was safe to add. I also asked someone with more expierence than me, and he was able to talk me through the best first fish to start stocking with. (based on the test results)

I don't think I would have trusted myself with reading a kit.. especially just starting out.

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

yea i took a water sample to my lfs and they told me it was safe to add fish...but when i added them, they all died lol cuz i didnt let it cycle AT ALL so this time i'm not relying on the lfs

Well, if you took a sample of the water that was sitting there with no fish in it to the store for testing then that's why they told you it was safe. There was ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates in there. As soon as you added fish the ammonia probably spiked. As was mentioned before, you can't cycle a tank with out adding an ammonia source. Get yourself a test kit so you can keep track of yourwater parameters.

I also recommend the fishless cycle because I lost a lot of fish the other way, and it is heartbreaking.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

yea thats how i cycled my first tank...ouch poor fishies I have a test kit and i'm gonna do the household ammonia thing

Good, that's what I'm going to do for my big tank that ****hopefully**** Santa Clause is bringing. I was hoping for 100 gallons, but doing some measurements in they only available space in my home, I may have to settle for 55 right now, and lobby for a bigger house later.

Good luck on your tank, I hope it goes well for you.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

thank you good luck getting yours what do you plan to stock it with?

Just to clarify, I did a fishless cycle here.. THEN brought the water sample to the lfs. I never did anything than a fishless cycle but, I agree that it is the safest (and probably cheapest) way to go.

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

"thank you good luck getting yours what do you plan to stock it with?"


I haven't decided yet. It's going to be one of three thing, Lake Malawi with colorful Africans, CA Cichlids with electric blue Jack Dempsey's, or a heavily planted SA biotope with German Blue Rams and tetras. I'm leaning toward the last option because I will be able to maximize the number of fish I can put in there. I have toyed with the idea of doing a discus tank, but I'm too chicken....they're so expensive, and I don't think I'm ready for them yet.

How about your tank? What's the plan?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

3 pairs of Golden or Blue Rams
about 8 Hatchetfish
4 CL's yes I plan to move them when they get too big
6 panda or albino corydora's
A pair of Pearl Gouramis
do you think that sounds good? any suggestions?

Sounds good. IMO--Make sure the Pearl Gouramis are either male/female or two females. If you're only getting two and you end up with two males there could be some aggression issues.

It will probably be quite a while before you need a bigger tank for the CL's I think they grow rather slowly.

Sounds like you're good to go with this list.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Thanks alot i cant wait til i can start adding some fish!/:'