# Starter Fish While Cycling



## FX (Dec 31, 2011)

Very shortly I will begin the process of cycling my 75 gallon tank. Once cycled, I plan on having approximately 24-30 fish consisting of Acei, Yellow Labs, Rusties, and Saluso. I plan on declorinating the water and starting the cycle up with Tetra Safe Start. I would rather introduce my starter fish as the fish I plan on keeping once the cycling is complete in a months time. Question: How many cichlids should I keep in the 75 gallon tank while cycling? Any particular species out of the 4 mentioned? Are any of the four more hardy than the other?

Thanks! :thumb:  :fish:


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## Sub-Mariner (Dec 7, 2011)

If I were you Id do a fishless cycle.....


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Please do fishless. Do you have any other tanks you can grab media and or gravel from?


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## klumsyninja (Aug 14, 2008)

If youre not going to do a fishless cycle, just buy a dozen danios and return them once your tanks bacterial column is established.


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## BJlexky (Jan 24, 2012)

i used Safestart and large clown barbs. Remeber to shake bottle well for 1 or 2 minutes(literraly). Cycle took about 3 1/2 weeks for my 55gallon. Then returnd barbs back to LFS. didn't get credit though. The barbs were like five bucks each. oh well!


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## Rammer (Jun 6, 2011)

Fishless cycling is better IMO. Get some ammonia and add to your tank. I don't know if the methods of cycling reef tanks can be applied to freshwater, but I want to try just ghost feeding my tank with flake food. You just pretend there are one or two fish and feed the tank with flake food. This will feed the bacteria needed to start the cycle. After the cycle is finished, you can add your first fish.


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## Totalimmortal363 (Jan 10, 2008)

I've always cycled with tetra's and BioSpira, never seem to have a whole lot of either ammonia or nitrite and never lost a fish, let alone seen any visible signs of stress during the process.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

Rammer said:


> Fishless cycling is better IMO. Get some ammonia and add to your tank. I don't know if the methods of cycling reef tanks can be applied to freshwater, but I want to try just ghost feeding my tank with flake food. You just pretend there are one or two fish and feed the tank with flake food. This will feed the bacteria needed to start the cycle. After the cycle is finished, you can add your first fish.


 Will "ghost feeding" my tank speed up the cycle, I know as Rammer said its a reef method but could it work for fresh water?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It's not faster than ammonia, because first the food has to rot. Ammonia is already in the correct form to feed the bacteria.


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## SirJAG (Jan 2, 2012)

well i cycled with 6 yellow lab juviniles in my 75g. i lost 2 and the other five are doing well now. i had amonia around 5ppm for about 10 days, then Nitrite >5ppm for almost 18days, now do 40% water changes every 15days or when my nitrate is >40ppm.

i had no access to another tanks gravel and it was pretty rough on my fish... but its up and running fine now. good luck


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