fishless vs fish in cycle?

courtney98

Ok, hello again. If anyone saw my post below you saw that I've lost about 6 fish in 48 hours. I have only my pleco left and I've taken him out of my 10 gallon since I'm pretty sure there is some sort of disease in there. I'm going to start over but I'm not sure how. I don't want to lose my pleco but the "tank" I have him in now is not really ideal. I have the filter on it, and I can get some algae tablets for him I suppose but I wasn't sure if the fish-in cycle wouldn't be better/less stressful on him. I read that white clouds & zebra danios are good fish to cycle with. I have a liquid test kit also.
Help me please! I don't want to murder any more fish!! Should I hope my pleco is ok for the time it takes to cycle my 10 gallon or should I buy some starters and put them in to cycle together. I appreciate ANY advice.

Oh, and what is a healthy pH to aim for? My old tank pH (the killer tank) was 8.2; the one I put the pleco in yesterday was at 7.5.

Thanks!!!

chimera779

syr im a little confused...how long has your tank been running for exactly?

courtney98

I actually started completely from scratch. I put the pleco in a small aquarium for the time being, then while deep cleaning the 10 gallon it slipped and shattered. Ugh.
Anyways, we got a new tank (15 gallon) and have filled and decorated it. My pleco is hanging out in the small "tank" for the time being but I didn't know how long he'd be ok in there. I know it's preferred to do a fishless cycle but I don't want to lose my pleco. Thanks in advance.

aura09

hmm i would first do a water test in your 10 gallon. see whats up with it you can add fish food to your new tank to help it cycle besides adding fish to it first. normally i would wait a week before adding anything to your new tank if you were to add some bacteria supplement :)

use prime tho as your conditoner it works well its in a red bottle . its more condensed so you get more for your money and it actually tries to balance out your tank rather then just remove the chlorine and putting a buch of slime coat on your fish and thats it... how big is your pleco? they need a lot of room you know when they get big like 1-2 feet and produce twice the amount of ammonia as a regular tropical fish. thats why i hate on them lol unless you have like a 100 gallon tank becuase at full size you will have no room in your tank for fish even in a 50 gallon just maybe a few fish . :( not worth it to mee.