jd wrote:

*SNIPPAGE*
Get the tanks set up, and throw in a bunch of trash fish (feeders).
Watvch

Trash fish. hmm. So what do you do with the trash when finished?


typically, I feed them to other fish. Alternately, use something that you
might be interested in keeping as trash fish. My standard is feeder
guppies. If some survive, they become a food source (both adults and fry)
for the fish I get once the tank is stable.

I was just wondering since it's likely any fish you use for cycling will be
damaged in the process. And fish are fish. I guess using the term 'trash'
fish suggests that they are fish that you aren't required to treat with the
same care you would a non-trash fish.

Anyway, doing a fishless cycle or getting some media from another tank
solves that issue. Start without fish until you have bacteria to cope with
the bioload, or with media, start slow with the fish you actually want in
the tank.

Get the tanks set up, and throw in a bunch of trash fish (feeders). Watvch
your water chemistry until it stabilizes, then add fish until its
saturated
(can't support any more fish). Now, turn on the UG filter, but don't
change
anything else. Watch your water chemistry change for the better. Now, try
adding more fish, and see how many more the tank will support now....

This part is bad advice. Period. Throwing a bunch of fish in there to
suffer. 'Saturated'? What the hell does that mean. You put a bunch of fish
in a tank with no biofilter then the ammonia levels will climb
continuously, damaging gills all the while, eventually to fatal levels.
There are no bacteria to support ANY fish at all. Even if you then start a
filter after the ammonia spike and by some luck the bacteria take off and
drop ammonia levels and you add even more fish, then the nitrites will
spike and kill them.

Watch the water chemistry until it stabilizes indeed. Watch the nh3 and no2
climb through the roof you mean...

Enough new aquarists end up with fish in ammonia soup without that sort of
advice.