Re: [Killietalk] fishless cycleing and killie tanks???

["coveney" <LCOVENEY at swfla_rr.com>]

I agree.  I never worry about cycling a tank with just a pair or two of
killies.  Many of my small tanks are not filtered at all and are run by
purely an airstone trickling a very fine amount of bubbles.  Live plants
provide an excellent service by giving security/cover to the fish as well as
metabolizing the nitrogenous wastes.  You don't even need to provide a lot
of light in order to get some of the low light plants to flourish.

One important thing that all of my tanks and containers always have are a
few snails.  They consume and process the uneaten food and fish waste.  If
you have a few snails and are still getting uneaten food laying around, you
are feeding too much.  If your snails start to take over, once again cut
back on your feeding as this means you are feeding enough to take care of
the fish and a large snail population.  If you are feeding correctly, have a
good amount of live plants and a couple of happy snails, you should usually
not have to worry about cycling a killie tank.  Hope this helps.

Joakim Coveney
Naples, Florida
AKA #6590

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