Jim
On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 12:31:21 -0500, marxxx <marxxx-in-earthlink.net> wrote:
> I do think that cycling is very important. The process of taking a handful
> of gravel or filter media from one tank to another is an accelerated cycle
> (and a fabulous thing to do for your fish). Really, this is putting live
> bacteria in the new tank. They multiply very quickly (I believe they double
> every 24 hours as long as there is enough food... ammonia in this case).
>
> This is all completely eveident by using test kits. The ammonia level will
> rise very quickly-in-the start of the cycle. The ammonia is broken down into
> nitrite, and the nitrite is then broken down into nitrate. When the ammonia
> level falls, and the nitrates are present, the cycle is complete. Nitirite
> is toxic as is ammonia (nitrate is normal, but can become harmful with a
> high concentration). The toxicity of ammonia is intensified by high ph
> water. The higher the ph, the more toxic the ammonia.
>
> I have started new tanks and just added fish. There are some species that
> can hadle this just fine. I suspect much of the success of this method (not
> cycling) may be attributed to the quality of the water they start in (low
> ph, soft water).
>
> There is also a correlation between the cycle and the lowering of ph. This
> is mainly present in softer water with less of a buffer. In hard water, the
> buffer is greater, and the ph may take a very long time to drop. The point;
> if a tank is not properly cycled it can also cause the ph to crash. I would
> think this is likely to happen when water has not been changed for an
> extended period, and the bio load is signifigantly increased very quickly
> (adding a bunch of new fish). A ph crash can shock and kill the fish.
> Unfortunatley, I don't remember all the details abuot this...
>
> I hope all this makes sense...
>
> Mark
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Unmack" <peter.lists at>
> To: "nanfa-l" <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 12:28 PM
> Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Denitrifying bacteria question
>
> > G'day folks
> >
> > I'm not sure if the purpose of all this bacteria discussion is relative to
> > marine or freshwater aquaria, but having kept fish for over 20 years I
> > believe most of the stuff about cycling freshwater tanks is extremely
> > overblown. I've never done it, and never will as I have never personally
> > experienced a situation that needed it. However, I will preface that by
> > saying that I rarely ever set up a completely new tank with everything
> > totally fresh and clean. I always either add a handfull or so of gravel
> > from an established filter to a new filter (I usually use a goldfish bowl
> > undergravel filter in a plastic goldfish bowl sized container that I put
> > in the tank, ugly but effective and cheap), or-in-least add some water
> > from an aquarium that is well established and healthy. But I have at
> > times started new tanks, added a whole pile of fishes (way more than you
> > should), and fed the crap out of them from day one and all have done very
> > well. Granted some fish may be more sensitive than others though. I have
> > had problems with ammonia once when I did a water change (I usually always
> > change 70-90% of the water if I am going to bother doing a water change)
> > and totally cleaned out the filter-in-the same time. I didn't age my
> > water (which typically had only very small amounts of chlorine) and a few
> > days later lost the fish. But that was due to my own complete stupidity
> > rather than a lack of bacteria I suspect.
> >
> > Tootles
> > Peter Unmack
> > Canadian River, Oklahoma
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