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I am a bit confused of which method to use (adding a few hardy fish in to get the cycle going or using the fishless cycle method). I would just like some feedback such as pros and cons and past experiences, so I can learn some more info on both methods and choose which one I would like to go with. Thanks for any help.

A lot of people are confused about the differences between the two. A regular cycle involves adding a few fish soon after setting up the tank (usually the next day). These first few fish add ammonia into the aquarium, thus ammonia builds up, bacteria grows, converts ammonia into nitrite, nitrite builds up, bacteria grows, converts into nitrate, nitrate taken out by water changes and live plants.

A fishless cycle involves adding ammonia into the aquarium by putting about 1 drop per 2 gallons of pure ammonia into the aquarium. Then the cylce goes through its live, blah blah blah, you get the idea.

Pros and Cons:

Regular cycle:
The problem with a regular cycle is that it takes a while in order to fully stock a tank. It may take many months before your aquarium is fully stocked with fish. Also, you risk losing fish due to ammonia poisoning. The advantage to this method, however, is that you get to have SOME fish in the aquarium from the beginning.

Fishless cycle:
The problem with a fishless cycle is that you cannot have any fish for a few weeks. However, it is only about 4 to 6 weeks without fish. However, after that time, you get to add ALL your fish at once! If you plan on getting a total of 50 fish, you can buy all 50 fish at once and put them in. With this method, it takes a lot less time to fully stock your tank, but you must be willing to have an fishless tank sitting for a few weeks. ALSO, you do not have to worry about your fish dying of ammonia poisoning because you have all the bacteria you need to support your bioload.

Personally, I like the fishless cycling method better. In the long run, it ends up being easier. Here]http://fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/thread.asp?id=41432[/link] is where we first posted about our tank. [link=Here is where we posted the end results when the cycle was complete. If you compare the dates posted between the two, you will notice it took us a little under a month to fishless cycle a 55 gallon. Of course, we also heavily seeded the tank to speed up the process.

I'm new to this too, and am just finishing up my first fishless cycle. I will tell you what I know, but there are many around here who know more. I will try to seperate facts from opinions as well.

The advatages of fishless cycling are:

-no stress on fish (hence, "fishless"

-you can add more ammonia than the fish could stand, so when done cycling, you can add more than just a couple fish. Some people say you can completely stock the tank. But it would depend on the ammount of ammonia you used.

The disadvantages of fishless cycling are:

-you have to test you water every day, and add ammonia, and pay a lot of attention.

-things can go wrong, and you will be annoyed you wasted your time on this whole "fishless fad".


Some people think you can cycle faster without fish, but cycling faster is achieved by adding in healthy bacteria beds and such, whether its added to a tank with fish or without.

I suppose you can get you tank fully stocked sooner. Because as I mentioned, you can add more ammonia than fish could safely stand, so you cycled tank will be ready to support more fish. But this is just a guess, don't quote me on this one.

The big advantage of cycling with a couple fish is:

-it's easy. you throw in a couple hardy "starter" fish, and wait for nature to do it thing. You should add a product like "New Improved Cycle" to help move nature along faster, and stress the fish the shortest time possible.

Now some people SWEAR the with a product like "New Improved Cycle" or, "NIC" or "Biospira" that the cycle happens so fast, the fish never get stressed. I have no experience with whether this is true or not. So I can't really comment.

So thats basically the difference. I can tell you, waiting around for the fishless cycle, staring at the empty tank, is pretty boring. But I did it so as not to stress out any fish. Mine finished cycling after 1 week, and I will be adding fish in a couple days. If all goes well when the fish go in, I would say it was well worth it.

There are articles around about how to properly fishless cycle. If you can't find them on this site, just search google.

Good luck!
-Dennis

[span class="edited"][Edited by Lindy 2004-08-25 23:05][/span]

I just read another thread, and some recommended to put fish in right away and use Cycle to jumpstart the cycling of the tank. I don't mind that it would take a while before I could put other fish in but I'm worried about the stress on fish. I think this method would be easier then fishless cycling but I am just beginning this hobby and i really don't know what to do.

Im also curious, by introducing a reasonable proportion of plants in your tank enable you to introduce your fish faster? Doesnt plants absorb toxin in the water..ie nitrate/nitrate..whatever it is..?

I think plants do. I read somewhere when u do water changes you can just empty the water outside and water plants with it because their is nutrients in the aquarium water. I just found this website about plants that says they absorb ammonia and nitrate. http://www.aquamaniacs.net/AddingPlantsToYourAquarium.html
Hope this helps.

Putting a couple fish in is the standard method to cycle a tank, and it was the only method until somebody thought up fishless cycling.

I like fishless cycling for exactly the reason you said, it doesn't stress out fish. But lots of people think that with "New Improved Cycle" the fish barely notice. I haven't tried that, so I can't comment on if it's true.

I did my fishless cycle in 1 week, and although I didn't have fish for that time. After I type this I am going to buy my first, and because I really loaded the tank much more than a couple fish could have done, I get to buy more than just a few fish right off the bat.

You will never get THE difinitive answer as to which is better. But one thing to think about that helped make the dicision for me was:

Now that I know about fishless cycling, and how it doesn't hurt any fish, IF I used fish, and they died, how bad would I feel?

That's why I did it.

-Dennis