Ok, so I read everything...

[Kageshi17]

...in the cycling section. I have a 29g tank that I just cleared all my fish out of and am ready to cycle it!

My idea is to leave the tank water that my last fish were in still in the tank and use 2 filters (that amount to 70g) to cycle the tank. I am going to have a heater keep the water at 78 degrees and leave the old filter media in the filters. I thought maybe the bacteria growing in the filter pads would speed up the process. I also am going to drop a shrimp in there for ammonia (a dead eatable shrimp that is) and plant the aquarium.

I have learned that the nitrogen cycle goes like this: Add a large amount of ammonia to your tank (3.0 reading) and keep it at this level while the nitrites and nitrates read 0. Soon the ammonia will be changed to nitrite. Then, to nitrates which is a good thing. When this happens, do a 25% water change and your aquarium should be ready for fish!

So, now that I have totally read the sticky for cyling I am going to ask some more educated questions. Hahaha, so bare with me here and try to answer all of them, pleassssssse!

1. Should I plant my tank before or after the cycle?

2. How long should I leave the decomposing shrimp in the water?

3. If I do add plants when the tank is cycling, will the nitrogen cycle be different and require a different set of rules?

4. About how long would the cycle take with a 29g aquarium?

5. Is it ok to replace the filter media, if so, should I do this after the cycle or can I do it while its cycling, like when I have the money for a new filter? (seeing as I am going to purchase a better filter, and one filter that is so I dont have to have 2 going)

6. And should I add salt while the aquarium is cycling or after? What about the plant food and fertilizer....if I have plants at that time will it mess up the cycle?

Thank you all for your help, I'm so excited about cycling and having a tank that will fully support my new fish and keep them very happy (thinking about keeping cichlids, yay!)

[Christine]

Was the tank not cycled with your other fish? If you left the water in the tank, still have the filter in place and the tank was cycled already.....you really dont need to hassle with all of this.

[Kageshi17]

No it wasnt. The fish were only in it for about a week maybe. The water was brand new, the media was old though.

[MyraVan]

OK, you say the tank wasn't cycled, so let's assume you're starting from scratch, so the fact that you're using old filters doesn't matter: they are old filters with no useful bacteria. So here's my go at your questions:

Q1. Should I plant my tank before or after the cycle?

I feel you should plant your tank up straight away. Plants need time to establish themselves, and the sooner you get going with it the sooner you'll have that nice aquatic garden you're looking for.

Q2. How long should I leave the decomposing shrimp in the water?

I have never used the rotting shrimp method, but I'd say that once your ammonia and nitrite levels are 0, then you can add the fish. I would remove the rotting shrimp at the same time as you put the fish in: that way it will continue to provide food for your bacteria until the fish can do the job.

Q3. If I do add plants when the tank is cycling, will the nitrogen cycle be different and require a different set of rules?

The cycle will probably be different, mainly because healthy growing plants will absorb ammonia directly out of the water (they use it for fertilizer), leaving less left over for the bacteria in your filter. Thus the bacteria in your filter (and on all the surfaces of the tank, really, but more so in the filter) will end up growing slower, or else you will end up with less of them. I don't feel that this is a bad thing; after all your plants will continue to stick around and will continue to help deal with the fish wastes. To be honest, unless you've got very fast growing plants, they won't absorb much ammonia to start with, since plants need time to establish themselves before they really get growing. So just do the cycle using the usual rules. If you get no ammonia reading at all then either (a) you've got some very fast-growing plants, or (b) your test kit isn't working.

Q4. About how long would the cycle take with a 29g aquarium?

No set answer here, just keep testing. I've heard a max of about 6 weeks.

Q5. Is it ok to replace the filter media, if so, should I do this after the cycle or can I do it while its cycling, like when I have the money for a new filter? (seeing as I am going to purchase a better filter, and one filter that is so I dont have to have 2 going)

Assuming that you're plants aren't growing fast enough to eat up all the ammonia, then you're going to be growing lots of good bacteria in your filters. Now, plants themselves have alot of surface area, so they will also have some good bacteria on them. There wil be more on your filter, but there will still be some elsewhere. If you simply take out all your filter media and replace it with new, you will lose all the good bacteria in your filters. You'll still be left with what's left on the plants and gravel and such like, and the plants themselves will absorb some ammonia, but will it be enough to support your full fish load? Maybe not; it's not worth the risk.

However, you normally don't have to replace all your filter media at once, even if you have a completely different filter. You take the filter media out of your old filters and put it into your new filter. You might have to cut it up to do this, but that's OK; it won't hurt the bacteria. Just make sure it doesn't stay out of the water too long and you don't clean it with tapwater (or detergents or anything like that) because that will kill the bacteria. If you do that, then it's fine to cycle with your existing filters and then replace them later.

Q6. And should I add salt while the aquarium is cycling or after? What about the plant food and fertilizer....if I have plants at that time will it mess up the cycle?

Er, what's the salt for? Will this be a brackish tank? Or will you be keeping livebearers like mollies, that like a very low level of salt? If not, then don't add salt. If this will be a brackish tank or a tank for livebearers, then add the salt at the beginning, but be warned that many plants don't like salt and may die. As for plant food and ferts, as long as the plant food doesn't have any ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate then it will be fine to add during the cycle. No plants foods should have ammonia or nitrite, but some may have nitrate.

[Kageshi17]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ANSWERS!

I actually have a different question now seeing as I tested my water and found out...I think...that it is already cycled! Or damn close at that. This is why I think that:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 30

But, I have a question. If the hardness reading is: 75 and the ph reading is: 7.8 - 8.4 is that bad? I was thinking of stocking my tank with cichlid, maybe cories, and maybe snails. So yeah, just get back to me on that one.

[mousey]

cories often don't do well in tanks with really hard water or/and high ph. They come from south america where the water is soft and the ph is on the acid side.
Platys, guppies, mollies, cichilids and snails do well in hard water.Although 75 does not strike me as being all that hard. My hardness is 190.

[MyraVan]

If you've just put your shrimp in, and are getting those 0 readings for ammonia & nitrite, it could well be that your shrimp hasn't really started rotting yet. Give it a couple of weeks to make sure. The nitrates could well come from your tap water; around here we have at least 40ppm nitrates.

As for your pH, it's true that things like cories come originally from soft water, so that would be an issue if you were keeping wild-caught cories. But the ones bred on farms, as all the ones you'll see in shops are, are much more adaptable. As long as you acclimatize them to your water gradually, they are fine. Our tapwater here comes from wells deep in the limestone, so it's a consistent pH of 7.8 and very hard. But I'm successfully keeping, amongst other things, neon tetras and kuhlie loaches which are supposed to like soft water. The only thing I would never try to keep in this water are discus. Also if I wanted to try to breed softwater fish (like neons) I might think about trying to find a source of soft water but for just keeping them, it's OK.

By far the most important thing for fishies is stability, so as long as your pH doesn't change, they'll adjust to it and be happy. The bad thing about trying to change your pH is that some of the ways you can go about changing it work only temporarily, and then the constantly changing pH is much worse for the fish than a high but steady pH.

But if you did want to match your fish's original environment to the water you have, mousey has given a really good list. I'll put in a vote for apple snails. If you are careful to choose tankmates that won't harrass them by nipping at their antennae, they will reward you by looking cool and exhibiting a range of interesting behaviors.