Compatable Aquatic Critters

[Heatheranne]

Great! Glad I can help .

[Kyle4]

You're welcome. It's a good thing to know when dealing with 'wet' tanks. Not a dumb question at all. It's something most people don't know unless they've had a fish tank .

Whaaaaaaaaaat? LOL.
I've owned fish tanks many times... and ive never even heard or done this cycling!? :O

[Heatheranne]

That means you did a good job of keeping the tank clean . You didn't even notice .

[Mudfrog]

it means don't leave the same animal in there at all times
put something in for a month or 2, then remove it and swap it out for somethings else, then repeat a few times and start again to complete the cycle...

Sorry but that is bad info.

Cycling the tank is when beneficial bacteria grows and becomes established in the tank. Beneficial bacteria will change Ammonia to Nitrites and Nitrites to Nitrates. An uncycled tank will have Ammonia and Nitrates in the water, both of which are very very dangerous to fish.

Another user posted to use a fish your not fond of, this is good info as a lot of times the fish will not survive the cycling of the tank. Once your tank reads 0 Ammonia / 0 Nitrites but it does read Nitrates your tank is cycled. From there you do partial water changes to control the Nitrate levels, etc..

I'm in the beggining phase of making a fire belly tank and I also plan on using some fish in the water area. I should have around 14 gallons of water (30" x 18" x 6"). I plan on keeping either guppies or some other type of small yet hardy fish. I should not need to cycle the tank as I will be running the filter in one of my established fish tanks for around 2-3 weeks.

[FinnyBird]

Hey guys! Sorry for disappearing. My own reasons. Anyways! I'll be posting up pics soon, but the tank looks fantastic. I went with zebra danios, a very hardy and very pretty schooling fish. Bought them a little less than a month ago, they are doing great. I have some live plants in the tank as well which are taking very nicely, and my moss is beginning to ressurect. I'll post pictures when I can.