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On 2006-04-26, David McDermott wrote:

"Frank" wrote in message
oups.com...
Altum wrote,
I'm not good with
fishless cycles, but I'm sure someone can tell you how much ordinary
ammonia to add to finish maturing your filter. Personally......

Fishless cycle is the only way I would do a cycle - no fish to harm or
kill, a *lot* less work (no water changes), and a *lot* faster (10 to
14 days instead of 4 to 8 weeks). 5 to 6 drops per gal. of pure

[snip]

I think for my next tank I will try fishless. I have always disliked
putting the fish through the stress of a cycle, it seems unnecessarily cruel
and the worst part is there isn't much you can do to stop it.

I changed about 15% of my water again last night and tested the ammonia this
morning. It is down a bit, to about 0.75 ppm. I was hoping it would be
down even further after diluting but I guess it's still a small victory.
I'm going to do another 10 - 15% change either tonight or tomorrow. I know
all this fresh water isn't exactly good either but I always dechlorinate so
hopefully that will ease the stress a bit.

I was checking my filter last night ( a Whisper 10) and I'm a little
confused. I have asked about this filter in the newsgroup before and it was
described as having the Bio-bag and an extra foam insert meant to house the
bacteria. Well mine has no such foam insert and I assumed that the flossy
biobag that contains the carbon would house the bacteria. Does anyone else
have this filter? If so did mine for some reason ship without the foam and
should I be complaining to the pet store? The filter was sealed and
everything so I didn't suspect anything until I read some other posts.
Could this be the reason it is taking so long for the ammonia to drop?



I have been struggling to get a 10 gallon tank to cycle as well. Mine
contains 5 tetras and one lonely rasbora. I tried Cycle but as many of
the kindly experts here have noted, it is basically useless, and my
experience shows that it hasn't accelerated my cycle at all.

I have done 25% water changes whenever the ammonia was getting real
high, like above 2 ppm. The fish get one small meal of Tetra flakes
every day and appear very lively and healthy.

I also have a Whisper filter with a biobag and no foam insert. I assume
the bacteria will colonize the filter mesh, but I could be wrong. The
precise model is: Whisper Power Filter for 5-15 Gallon Aquariums,
Product #25798. I believe it was noted that there are a variety of
whisper models, so possibly yours and mine just lack the foam insert
filter.

In any case, I set my tank up fishless on roughly 10 March, and added
some fish two weeks later (3 neon tetras died fairly quickly, while all
the others are going strong). And finally today, YAY!, I see 0.25 ppm
of Nitrite, and ammonia about 1.5 ppm. So I will watch the ammonia and
perhaps *not* change the water, then check chemistry tommorrow to see
how high the readings are surging. In sum, my tank is *still not* fully
cycled after more than 6 weeks--but it is starting!!

Thanks to all gave me their generous advice, it has been very
informative. Hopefully your goldfish and tank will fare very well with
the fine assistance available in this group!.


Cheers,

Fred

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--
"Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after."
--Alphonse Allais