Cycling your new aquarium / fish tank

Buy a tank. Fill it with water. Throw in some fish. All done.

Right?

Wrong!

You don’t have to take it for a walk or clean it’s litter box, but a home aquarium still requires effort. I knew this going in (I used to have a salt water tank many years ago *oh the horror*) but it’s been just long enough that I’ve been boning up on my fish knowledge the past few weeks.

Cycling your new tank is as important to moving forward with your aquarium as building the proper foundation for your new house. If you don’t do it right, the whole thing is going to come crashing down. Cost aside, I feel more guilty about dead fish than broken lumber. But hey, I’m wacky like that. Remember I mentioned the salt water aquarium from years ago? I was like the Nazi Third Reich of the salt water fish world. In the end, when I finally gave up, I had one small Damsel fish living in a 75 gallon fish tank (note, that I do not call it an “aquarium” at this point). Of course, as Karma is wont to do, that one fish lived the next year without benefit of cleaning or feeding because I refused to take an active part in his demise. But anyway, I digress…

Cycling the tank… There is good information all over the ‘net or available by talking to your local fish stores. Here’s an article I liked (time will tell if it’s any good): http://www.bestfish.com/breakin.html

My personal opinion, something to remember about *any* information you get, whether it be from fish store, friend, or internet – there is no cut and dried set of rules for everything with your aquarium. There are some basic truisms and from there everyone starts going in slightly different directions for exactly what you “need” to do to be a successful fish owner (and not a salt water killer, mentioning no names, ah-hem). My suggestion is to talk to as many people and read as much as you can and then pick a course, stay consistent, pay attention to what’s going on with your aquarium, and be willing to modify your course as needed. Status quo doesn’t work really well when fish are going belly up; that’s just taking “stay consistent” to an absurd level. Buy books, you ask? If that’s your comfort zone, but local shops and the internet are free (save your money for that next tank, you know you’ll want one) and provide a much broader amount of information (and take up a lot less room in your living room). Internet is great, but remember that just because someone can publish a web page, it doesn’t mean they know what they are talking about. “Joe Bob’s Rules for Keeping Fish Health with Tabasco Sauce”? Probably not wise. Use common sense and look for a depth of knowledge and some consistency in what’s being side from one source of information to another.

Here’s an example of differing information you can get, from what I recently went through cycling my new tank. I purchased my initial fish from Petco, and the gentleman there – who has an aquarium of his own, lending at least some to his credibility – suggested 5 to 8 fish maximum to start out my new 55 gallon tank. So, I purchased 8 fish (I fight being impatient so I went with the upper limit – be cautious of these impatient feelings). The day after I added my first fish, my nephew and his wife gave me 7 more Wal-Mart (I mention the store because I’d really like to research the quality of fish from the store that also sells generic cola, diapers, and anything else you can think of at 2am) for my birthday. Oops! Suddenly I was up to 15 fish and freaking out just a little that everyone was going to be dead by morning. Had I read a little more (I was also impatient in that I just talked to the fish store guy and solely went on that opinion in setting up the new tank with fish) I would have learned there are other rules of thumb for number of fish in a new tank.

The link I provided above for cycling the tank says 2 to 5 inches of fish initially per 10 gallons of water. So, in my case 8 to 20 inches of fish (see a couple posts back where I cover how 55 gallon capacity can equate to only 40 gallon actual capacity). So, considering a bit more than one inch per fish on average, I was probably right at the limit (by the above article, at least)! Other articles on the ‘net range anywhere between the pet store guy and the above article, but all of them are pretty close. Other factors such as temperature, oxygen in the water, type of fish, live plants, adding gravel/rock/wood from an established tank, etc., all come into play too. Pick a path that makes sense to you and for the type of aquarium you envision and move forward. So far so good for me. I lost two fish within the first week but they were also the two smallest fish out of the initial 15 (and from Petco rather than the Wal-Mart fish, go figure). So perhaps a slight case of overcrowding during the initial cycling phase or a combination of maxing out the number of fish to go through the cycling phase *and* two of them not being hardy enough to survive regardless. For the progression I’ve had with my tank thus far, I’m voting these two would not have had a tough time whether there were 8 or 15 fish.

And with this… I become another one of those “articles” floating around the ‘net. So take it at face value and do more reading. Comments? Experiences of your own? Bring ’em on! Would love to hear them!