snakes1989

are tiger barbs hard enough to cycle a tank

jim55379

they are pretty tough fish 2nd only to goldfish in my opinion. They are always the last to die when my tanks get infested with ICK!!

beccaboo254

Why don't you cycle fishless? Then you don't have to worry about it! It's faster too.

newbie101

its faster AND more humane! In fish cycling, the fish are exposed to all the toxins in the water and a lot of the time they get sick and die, and if not they are just very stressed. Which is not a good thing.
just add a small pinch of flakes (or 5 drops of 100% pure ammonia per 10 gallons) per day until you get some nitrite readings then decrease the flake amount or the ammonia to 3 drops/day

knight fish

I do agree with beccaboo254 and Emma, it's more humane you can also use a half of a shrimp from the supermarket and let it decompose in there as it will produce ammonia then nitrites, etc...
Me on the other hand used the tiger barbs to cycle my fish, they pretty tough, my tank is cycled, they eat a lot and they almost 2 inches long.
I'm planning to set up another tank but this time I'll do it without any fish. I'm getting so attached to my fish that I spend hours a day admiring them and to see them suffer it hurts. So I'll suggest Fishless Cycle!!

jim55379

I will have to try that next time. I had my aquarium running for about 5 days and added that cycle bacteria to the water. It was kind of cloudy . I added some fish to it yesterday and it got even more cloudy and they are swimming around like crazy. seeem stressed . Maybe have ick again. I thought the idea was to keep ammonia and nitrite low. I read some of these posts and saythat you actually want amonnia and nitrites? Very confusing.

Jon

when cycling your tank you need amonia and nitrite to build up bacteria that convert amonia --> nitrite --> nitrate

after a few weeks or longer you should get readings of 0ppm amonia 0ppm nitrite <10ppm nitrate. (optimal)

definately change the water (20% daily) if you have cloudy water that fast and if your fish are stressed... unfortunately it is almost inevitable that some of your barbs are going to start dying now. monitor carefully... cycle bacteria doesnt work very welll... the only product that does i beleive is bio-spira

knight fish

Remember, when setting up a new tank from scratch it's almost to completely sterile. I would say that cloudiness is normal in a tank that's being set up as it happened with mine. I run my 55 gal tank WITHOUT fish for a week (just my preference) it got cloudy on the third day but cleared up on the fifth, I did this to allow the filter remove any impurities from the water (water treated with aquasafe to neutralize chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals from the water). WhenI added the fish I added "Cycle" to provide the beneficial bacteria needed to start the nitrification process, which in turn reduces the lag time required to achieve low levels of ammonia --> nitrites --> nitrates subsequently. After a couple of days it got cloudy again which was a bacterial bloom (nitrosonomas, transform ammonia into nitrites)I didn't do a water change and it got cleared on the next following three days. Then was just a waiting game 'til the nitrobacter bacteria appeared (transforms nitrites to nitrates) following the weekly dose on the cycle label. My tank fully cycled on exactly four weeks, then added more fish slowly to stock my tank. Ammonia readings are 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 7ppm. I also added some aquarium plants to help reduce the nitrates from the water. At first, the fish get stressed 'cause the ammonia and nitrites build-up, you should put only a couple of hardy fish for this otherwise they will die, but I'll recommend the FISHLESS CYCLE.
Hope this will help in any way and there are many articles you can read even here at Fishlore about Cycling you tank.
Later.

EmpPleco

When I first started my aquarium, I tried to cycle with 6 zebra danios. 4 of them are still living and have gotten 2.5" long (started at .5") but the two other ones died, and it really made me feel bad about going about it the wrong way, so I suggest the fishless cycle too, it will prevent lots of future heartbreak.

Jon

cycle doesnt sound like it really works... your tank took 4 weeks w/ cycle mine took 2 weeks w/o... i guess mine is smaller but its all relative so the cycling time should be similar... id reccomend fishless cycle and not to use chemicals

newbie101

Try Bio-Spira by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals--it seems to work better.