Ways to help cycle a new tank

[abhaya]

When I set up my very first tank I got lucky. A local fish store was owned by an elderly couple who were very helpful to me. They said if I wanted to get containers they would give me water when they did thier weekly water change maintanance. I went to the local hardware store and bought several 5 gallon buckets. I came home with enough water from thier tanks to start my tank. I also got some live rock from them. The tank was cycled almost instantly. If you can make a deal with a fish store that you are confident has good quality or have a friend with an existing tank you may be able to get water and some subtratrate from them. This will shorten the cycle!!!!
I have also used this methode when I set up a new bigger tank I took water out of my existing tank to get it going.
Just an Idea for a new tank it worked out well for me.
Good luck
fshhub is right this can be problematic if you are not sure of the water quality and health of existing fish in the system. Many places also rutinly treat with copper for ick and if you want a reef tank copper is very bad it will kill your inverts and other non fish creatures. That is why said get Water from someone you are sure of Best case senerio is water from a friend who is a hobyist!!!! I should also have clasified the water he gave me was from his closed system in his show tank ! Not from The system that he sold fish from.

 

[fishkid1000]

Good job u lucked out.
Chris

 

[fshhub]

OMG!!!!!
DON'T ever do that, and never reccomend anyone else do it either!!!
SERIOUSLY
the last thing you want to do is tanke water for somewhere else, you never know what may be in it. Esp if it from a place where dozens or hundreds of fish pas thru it daiy/weekly. Too many fish to increase the odds of finding a disease or parasite. BE VERY CAREFUL, if even considering this. BUT again, I would never EVER do or advise this!
edited:
please, make sure to wait a good month or even 6 weeks now, befroe getting any fishes to put in, if there is even a slight chance of ich(which there is a good chance that several fish carried it), then it can be there for a month. This is one of the last things you want to introduce new fish to. PLEASE