# what are your views on fishless cycling & cycling with fish??



## bubble87 (May 13, 2010)

what method do you use??

i prefer to cycle with prawns personally and its always worked well for me.


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## xrayjeeper83 (Sep 6, 2009)

i was on another forum and get yelled at for saying i was going to cycle with fish, cause how much stress that fish would be in. 

Im going to cycle with plants and snails


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Before I knew any better I cycled my first tank with fish. Now I cycle with plants and a handful of media from one of my other tanks. Instant cycle. If I were to do an unplanted tank I would also use the prawn method.


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## Mr Fishy (May 4, 2010)

I've always used the ammonia and media from another tank method with lights out. I'm not a patient guy usually, but I don't want to be harming any living thing either.


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## Pep (Dec 29, 2009)

aunt kymmie said:


> Before I knew any better I cycled my first tank with fish. Now I cycle with plants and a handful of media from one of my other tanks. Instant cycle. If I were to do an unplanted tank I would also use the prawn method.


+1


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## SilersAngryMeow (Mar 2, 2010)

Mr Fishy said:


> I've always used the ammonia and media from another tank method with lights out. I'm not a patient guy usually, but I don't want to be harming any living thing either.


This. I'm horribly impatient usually, but my dislike for causing something suffering outweighs my need to have it done NOW, RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!

I loved setting up a new planted tank, though. Minimal wait time!


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

I cycled with fish first time. Since then I instant cycle with mature media. It works on a unplanted tank just fine for me. Half the time I add fish then wait a few hours before swapping media over. Had success doing this with things like rummy nosed tetras. I tried a fishless cycle once, but totall failed and stalled the cycle by letting ammonia get to high. I wanted to say I've done it before, but I never really have successfully done a fishless cycle:lol:.


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

I like the shrimp method. Pretty foolproof, low maintenance and has a very easy cleanup. I haven't done one of these in a while, though; I usually just buy the filter, slap it on an existing tank then move the whole filter to the new tank and add fish.


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

Iamntbatman how long do you keep the new filter on the existing tank?
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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm usually pretty patient so I'll leave it on there for a month or so before putting it on the new tank and adding fish.


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

I have a 10 gallon tank right now with a penguin 100 on it right now. I have a good amount of live plants in the tank and 6 fish. Do you think if I transfered all of this stuff over to a 55 gallon aquarium and added 45 more gallons of water there would be a cycle? I would then add a whole lot more live plants to the 55 and fish so I would probably have to get a bigger filter. But that could wait right?
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## fryup (Jan 12, 2010)

let me get this right ...you want to move all off the fish into a larger tank.....if you also added all the water from the old tank to the new one and the filter too then it would be fine


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## fryup (Jan 12, 2010)

actually now....add half of the 10g water to the 55 and the filter or just the filter pads then leve it for a week then add fish that should work for you


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

Ok thanks. Sweet.
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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

I would move all of the fish over. The bacteria in the filters currently on the 10g should be able to handle the bioload of the fish in the 10g so they should function just fine on the bigger tank with the same amount of fish. I would wait a few weeks before adding more fish, though. If you let the filters sit on the 55g for a week without any fish in the tank, the bacteria would die off.


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## outpost (Mar 30, 2010)

K I think I'm going to do it the way you suggested where you put the 55 gal filter on the 10 gal and let it sit there for a month then transfer it over cause I want to keep the [email protected] gal as a grow out tank for platty fry. The tank won't be set up for a while cause I don't even have it yet and I won't be able to get out of bed till wed. 
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