cycling a freshwater tank

[nychris351]

ok i have had 3 or 4 fresh water setups so far...and i never knew you had to cycle them..the last one i had was a 30 gal tank..i just went to the store bought the setup...put it together...the next say i went back ..picked out some fish that pleased my eye along with some snails and crabs and algae eaters that was it!..never had any fish ever die on me or had any problems ..now im trying a saltwater setup and going through the cycling stage and finding out i was supposed to do it also for the freshwater ..was it luck i never had any problems...or is it not that serious for freshwater?

[returnofsid]

I'm surprised you were so lucky with freshwater. It's just as critical to cycle your freshwater tank as it is saltwater. In fact, where nitrites aren't nearly as problematic for saltwater fish, they can be outright deadly for freshwater fish.

Both FW and SW must be cycled before they're able to properly break down waste. Yes, you got lucky...lol. Over time, I'm sure your tanks ended up cycled but I'm sure it was quite stressful for the inhabitants.

The big difference is that the inhabitants of a SW tank are usually much more expensive than FW and sometimes less able to handle the stress. One of the reasons is because with FW, a lot of fish have been bred in captivity and are more able to deal with less than ideal water conditions. SW fish, for the most part, are wild caught within days or weeks of entering your tank. Because of this, they are much less able to handle the stress. Because of the higher cost of SW species, people usually pay a bit more attention to keeping them healthy. I don't agree with this philosophy but it's true.

I've kept FW tanks for over 20 years and in fact have bred many species of FW fish. I wasn't totally aware of the cycling process at first either. However, it's a learning process. Hopefully we learn without too many fish losses or causing too much harm or stress to the fish we are responsible for taking care of.

It's good that you're learning about the cycling process. There's so much great information available. Do lots of reading and studying before purchasing any fish....oh and DON'T buy into the idea of cycling your tank using damsels or other "hardy" fish. There's other ways to cycle our tanks without stressing out fish. Do some searches for "fishless cycle."