soup wrote:
Have googled for aquarium cycling and there seems
to be 301,000 different opinions on how to do it.
A straw poll, how many believe in the chemical
approach and how many in hardy fish and does
anyone have a method involving black cats and
ouija boards ?.

As I understand it "cycling" is too get the level
of good bacteria up so they can "eat" fish waste
and convert it into nitrites then convert these
nitrites to nitrates.

Another method for planted tanks.
My LFS keeps cichlid babies and a few other fish in their plant tank
system. This means that the plants have small colonies of nitrifying
bacteria on their leaves. (Yep - plants support the bacteria like every
other solid surface in a tank.)

So, I completely plant my tank at the start. For me, that's usually
well over half of the substrate planted. Then add a super-light load of
fish. Between the plants themselves and the bacterial colonies on the
plants I don't usually see any ammonia or nitrite. In a couple of
weeks, if all tests well, add a couple more fish and let the bacteria
grow and adapt. If you keep adding slowly, even a new tank will never
"cycle."

I just did this with my 2 gallon betta tank. Even in only 2 gallons of
water, I've been able to establish an UGF without a bit of ammonia. And
a betta in 2 gallons of water isn't what I call a "light" fish load.

There is one risk - all the fish on the plant system you buy must be
healthy. The plants can carry ich and other diseases into your tank,
just like a new fish. Also, a snail dip will kill the nitrifying
bacteria too, so you must inspect the plants carefully and remove snails
by hand.

Oh - and if a black cat crosses your path on the way home from the fish
store, you must hold a session with a Ouija board that evening or it
won't work. ;-)

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__