fish-in cycle

[TheFighterFish]

I'm setting up a 10 gallon this following week:

TopFin all glass aquarium (10G)
Hagen's Aquaclear HOB filter
20 lbs. of Kordon Wonderock gravel
Jebo 50W heater
Odessey hood and lighting (15W)
Driftwood

Should I wait a week of filtration before I add my first fish(es)? I was planning to cycle with my 2 bronze corydoras and maybe even my swordtail. I need to clear out my current 5 gallon so my pregnant platy will have some room to give birth.

 

[MortiferousSoul]

if your planning on doing the cycle with fish then you should only have to wait about 2 days or so.

 

[TheFighterFish]

Cool, two days it is. How many fish should I add? The 2 corys, the cories and the swordtail, or every fish except the pregnant one?

 

[MortiferousSoul]

well for sure not the pregnat one, the cycle process would be to much stress for it. as far as the rest its really up to you. To many and the ammonia levels will spike to high, to little and the cycle can last alot longer. cycleing with the corydoras and the sword tail should be ok.
also make sure you clean off the gravel and decora before placing it in the tank, you dont want all the dust and stuff in there.

You might want to wait for a secound opinion from one of the more experinced users. I'm still faily new to this but im pretty sure my info's correct ^_^

 

[ram man]

why not just fishless cycle?

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

the platy is pregnant i think... i dont think tyhe fighter would have enough time.

 

[FroggyFox]

All you need to do is set the tank up, condition the water and get the temperature right before moving fish over if you're doing a fish-in cycle. No point in letting the tank run, unless its just to make sure it holds water etc.

What kind of filter do you have on the 5? Technically if you just move the filter from the 5 to the 10 and dont add any additional fish then you wont have a cycle. If you can run both filters on the 10 for a couple of weeks then you can move the filter back to the 5 and have that one cycled as well.

If you have a UGF in the 5 you'd do well to be sure and seed it with gravel from the tank.

 

[TheFighterFish]

I have a sponge box filter on my 5 (perfect for the incoming fry). To boost the cycle i'm moving some of my rocks and throwing in the filter material to the 10G.

I'll set up the new tank on tuesday. Condition the water, set temperature, run equipment and I'm throwing in 4 fish: 2 corycats, 1 swordtail, and 1 platy.

And I think its suggested that I do daily water changes? I think I can only afford (if time permits) to do water changes every 2 days.

 

[MortiferousSoul]

i dont believe daily water changes are in order, it will take the tank ALOT longer to cycle. Im doing a weekly water change in my with fish cycle, and they seem to be doing fine.

 

[FroggyFox]

Water changes are in order whenever your ammonia or nitrites get above a liveable level for your fish...whether that is every day or every week or whatever. If you're putting the filter media from the sponge into the new filter you really dont have to do anything except watch for spikes. Chances are good that you wont have to worry about cycling the new tank. (..but that doesn't mean you dont have to test for it )

 

[TheFighterFish]

Rather than put the filter medium in the new filter, would it be okay if I just threw the sponge part in the tank and lit it sit there?

Or does it have to be in the filter itself?
And taking the filter medium out, should I also clean it by washing off the dirty wastes?

 

[FroggyFox]

no...it really needs to go in the filter. If you can't fit it all in for some reason can you cut it in half maybe?