General Aquaria Discussion • Cycle with fish

[JLight72]

I plan on using fish and the biomax out of my 29 gallon tank to seed my new tank and was wondering if taking the biomax out for a couple weeks would make the 29 gallon go through a another cycle?

[DJRansome]

What is going to remain in the 29G?

Rather I would buy a filter for your new tank and run it alongside the 29G filter for 2 weeks. Then the new filter will be seeded and ready to go.

[JLight72]

well right now i have 2 aquaclear 30 filters on the 29 gallon so would taking one of those filters and putting in on the 37 gallon (uncycled tank) be sufficient? or would that take too much away from the 29 gallon?

[DJRansome]

It depends on what fish you have in each tank. I would still run the new filter on the old tank with both old filters running for 2 weeks.

[JLight72]

well in the 29 i have 8 tropical fish all around 2-3"

[JLight72]

and i was thinking about using the 4 little tetras i used to cycle the 29 gallon in the 37 gallon to cycle it along with the biomax from the 29 gallon

[fmueller]

4 little tetras won't cycle a tank. The bioload they produce is minimal. You might have thought they cycled your 29G, but the real cycle happened when you went to full stocking level. Of course if your full stocking level was 8 little fish, it would explain why things worked well. However, if you wanted to stock the 37G with something like a colony of P. saulosi, you might be in trouble with that procedure!

[JLight72]

well when i cycled the 29 gallon i didnt add any other fish until i saw a spike in ammonia then had it to zero. but i took a while! about a month or a little over so thats what im trying to stay away from is the time! i want to do the fishless cycle because i dont want to harm the fish but staring at a empty tank is only fun for so long! and after having to wait about 2 weeks until i could even set up the tanki want to start seeing some action in it!

[DJRansome]

If you remove half of your filtration from the 29G and keep the same amount of fish in there it could go through another cycle, but I think it would not. Before you decide, you may want to check how well established the 29G is. What are your test results for pH, KH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? Note that ammonia=0 does not mean you have a cycled tank, that happens about halfway through the process. You want to also check your nitrites (goal is 0) and nitrate (goal is to see nitrates increase).

To stock fish in your new tank immediately with one filter from your 29G, you could start with six individuals at 1.5" and add another six a couple weeks later if the test results are good. I'd run the new filter along side though so you could eventually return the 2nd 29G filter to the original tank.

[fmueller]

staring at a empty tank is only fun for so long! and after having to wait about 2 weeks until i could even set up the tanki want to start seeing some action in it!

Many people feel this way, but I can tell you from personal experience that one thing is far worse than staring at an empty tank, and that's staring at a tank in which the fish are dropping dead like flies. That's why most people find showing some patience and setting things up right in the first place pays off in the end. You've got some excellent advice from DJRansome!

[JLight72]

I agree 100% about the excellent advice! so helpful! and my ph is at about 7.1 and the ammonia is reading zero its been running for a little less then 3 months so im pretty sure its completely established but i could be wrong. And what i planned on doing was running one of the filters off the 29 gallon and run it with the filter that bought for the 37G tank. my thinking was that the filter would take enough of the ammonia to where it wouldnt leave any negative effect on the fish. and another thing i was wondering is DJransome said something about adding 6 to begin with and 6 at a later date. 12 fish total. Wouldnt that be waaay to many fish for just a 37 gallon tank? Not while they were 1.5 inches long but like down the road?

[DJRansome]

What are you stocking the tank with? Saulosi would work with 12. Some other fish would not even work with one.

Ammonia=0 does not mean a cycled tank. If your ammonia and nitrite are both zero, plus your nitrates are above zero and increase each week between water changes, THAT is a cycled tank.

Pretty much any amount of ammonia has a negative effect on the fish.

Try the one filter and see what happens.

[JLight72]

Yeah im not sure what im gonna put in there because im only gonna get some fish from the pet store in the assorted cichlid tank. So i wont be exactly sure what kind they are...and my nitrites are at zero also havent checked the nitrates yet.

[DJRansome]

Well, my 38G tank is 36" long...how long is yours?

You have limited options among Malawi for a 36" tank. You definitely want dwarf mbuna, and some of the mbuna commonly in the assorted tank may be inappropriate if your tank is 36".

If you are not getting Saulosi, think in terms of 1m:4f of dwarf mbuna.

[JLight72]

yeah mine is 36 inches too but its got a hexagon front if that makes sense. so its a little bit deeper. but i got 6 fish today and theyre all at most 1 inch long. im not sure what kind they are. but they get up to 5 inches so im not sure if thats a dwarf or not. i feel like i maybe should have done a little more research...