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I have been maturing a filter in my 10 gallon for about 2 mmonths and also 3 bags of gravel, I asked someone at an aquarium, not my lfs, and they said that there was no such thing as a fishless cycle.He told me that he would klend me 4 goldfish to cycle wiht and then I just turn th heater on and add my fish. Is this true?

you can fisles cycle, but to do so you have to add ammonia to feed the bacteria. You also need to add the bacteria at least to start out with (NIC or Biospira for example), and test the water so you know when it's cycled.

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Adding BioSpira to a tank will pretty much instantly "cycle" the tank. The tank will still mature after adding it, but assuming you don't overstock the tank by a large amount there will be no ammonia spike etc.

NIC is good bacteria in a dormant stage. It will greatly speed up the cycling time, but isn't exactly the same thing as BioSpira. Both, however, accomplish the same thing - they allow you to "cycle" a tank without buring your fish's gills with ammonia and nitrite. There's really no reason these days to cycle a tank with fish. It's quicker and easier to do without. Wish I had known that...

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