Cycling

4 responses so far ↓

• 1 Charles // Apr 9, 2009 at 2:06 am

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  i would suggest not putting any fish in your tank untill it sets up.. however i know that is not what most new aquarium owners do.. if you feel you need to put fish in your tank you will have to pay closer attention to the water and the chemicals in the water.. also if you add fish before its cycled you might wanna be prepared for fish to die in my honest opinion i would just wait till it cycles…

  and you want to do 10-15% partials

• 2 pikayooperdave // Apr 10, 2009 at 2:35 pm

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  Many sensitive fish would not do well in a cycling tank, but a betta should be alright. If you put fish in a tank that is uncycled, just them being there will cause it to start cycling. You might as well put them in the cycling tank. Don’t change too much water all at once (10% should be okay) or you will interrupt the cycling process.

• 3 copperhead // Apr 13, 2009 at 2:11 am

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  It’s always best to cycle without fish if you can. But bettas are hardy enough to survive in the cups in which pet stores sell them, so if you buy one and put it in an uncycled or a partially-cycled 5 gallon tank, in my book, that’s still an improvement over what it had been living in. The larger water volum will dilute the wastes more.

  The main thing is, since you know the tank wouldn’t be fully cycled, that you would be testing the water and do water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels at a level that’s not harmful to the fish. For just the betta, as long as you don’t overfeed, you could do 25% water changes at least once a week. Depending on what the ammonia and nitrite levels were for a partially cycled tank, you may need to do a water change to bring the levels down so they’re both under 0.5 ppm before you add the fish.

  Of the choice between the partially cycled tank or a brand new setup, the partly cycled will still be preferable because it will be that much further through the cycle than starting from scratch.

• 4 Koolieo Vegan // Apr 13, 2009 at 4:04 pm

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  When I cycled my tank, I put a betta in it. It helps the ammonia levels go up and cycle faster. Adding a betta will help the cycling. But you have to check the chemicals once a day and if the amonia goes high, change the water IMMEDIATLY! Other than that he should be fine.