rwood

Just inquiring about cycling methods for my 200 gallon tank. Brand new, about to put the water etc in it. So - a few questions:

1) Is it better to cycle without ANY fish? (and how long does this take)
2) Do hardy fish that can last the cycle actually help the tank in its cycling period (i.e. speed up cycle)
3) Do plants (main one I'm looking to put in at first is java moss and a few sword plants) help the cycle or hinder it? How much do they help/hinder it (time wise mainly)

Be as specific as possible; I love learning about this stuff

COBettaCouple

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm and http://www.firsttankguide.net/cyclechange.php are a couple good articles to check out on the details of cycling.

it's best to cycle without fish. using pure ammonia or fish food, along with turning the heater to maximum and not doing water changes during the cycling get you a cycled tank faster as well as healthier fish. Even fish hearty enough to survive a cycle are damaged by it and tend to live shorter lives. Plants help with the nitrates, but i'm not sure how much of a factor they are in the overall time it takes to cycle the tank.

rwood

Judging from that response I'm assuming that plants will grow fine during the cycling period (let me know if this is otherwise for certain plants please). Does anyone know if adding stuff like the flourite liquid plant grow stuff (not sure what the exact name of it is:P) will affect the cycle at all?

capekate

hello rwood
I have used both fish and fishless methods to cycle my tanks. I can say from my experience that cycling the tank fishless is the best way to go. It was much faster to cycle the 55g w/o fish, it took 24 days to complete. I just added fish flakes and a small piece of uncooked fish meat to the tank. I did not have to do any water changes during that time, I ran the filter the heater and let nature take its course. Simple and easy.
When I cycled my 29g tank with fish.. it was a disaster! It took 59 days to cycle! I had to do continual water changes to protect the fish that I had in the tank, playties, mollies. It slowed down the process so much that I thought I would never cycle. I had stressed out fish, and lost a lot of them over time.
I would never cycle with fish again.
I do not use the flourite so cannot say whether it would effect your cycle in any way. Hopefully others here with planted tanks will let you know.

~ kate

Allie

We usually cycle with fish....only lost of few $3 fish in the beginning. Now we don't lose any, plus we use the water, gravel, plants and wood from our larger established tanks for the smaller tanks...which I am sure makes a difference.

sirdarksol

Best way to cycle, in my opinion, is what Allie described above. In that case, you aren't really cycling with fish, you're cycling with the gravel, plants, and wood. I also put used filter media in the new tank's filter. I always have two extra filters going in at least one of my tanks, so I can move media around should something awful happen, forcing me to quickly cycle a tank.
Anyway, cycling with used filter media (has to be fresh from the older tank) cycles the new tank almost immediately. It's best to still start out slow (a few fish at a time), but I haven't lost any fish to a cycle since my first tank.
I don't cycle with fish anymore (by "cycle with fish" I am referring to starting with no nitrifying bacteria and building them up using hardy fish in the tank). To me, it's cruel to the fish. Essentially, you are forcing them to breathe ammonia while the nitrifying bacteria build up in the tank. Even if you don't lose any fish, that's an unpleasant process for anything to go through.

Allie

We always have extra filters on our larger tanks too. We haven't lost any fish with this method either.