How to cycle a tank very quickly? Is it even possible?

[freak78]

Like everyone has mentioned already. I seeded mine with my used filter media from my other tanks. I squeezed everything out into I 5g bucket of water and dumped it into my tank. Which was a 210g tank. I let the water clear up for an hour or two and added some fish. This is how it looked when I dumped it in. Let the filter's suck up all that goodness and let the colonization begin.

 

[Oughtsix]

With dirty media from a reputable fish store tank (not petsmart / petco etc.) The media is going to be quarentined for at least 6 - 8 weeks with out any exposuree to fish. I don't think I have ever seen a tank cycle in under 8 weeks.

But I would never put any fish in an uncycled tank.

When fish are added to the new tank after it cycles where are those fish most likely going to come from?.... LFS.

If you have existing cycled tanks by all means use media from those tanks. The LFS media suggestion was targeted at someone that has no other source of dirty media.

 

[Kashif314]

Yes a sponge from a cycled tank filter would be sufficient.

Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are the three tests you would need

Purchase the Freshwater Master test kit.

I would take the whole chunk of sponge, floss or pad and put it in the intake of your new filter so plenty of tank water flows through it. Ammonia rich water + oxygen + good water flow through bacteria rich media should be the fastest way to cycle your new tank. You are taking the small colony of bacteria on the dirty media and trying to make it propagate as quick as possible. Just squeezing the dirty media into your new tank water will not be nearly as effective as putting the dirty media into the water flow. Bacteria clings to surfaces, there will be much more bacteria clinging to the surfaces of the dirty media than you will be able to squeeze out of the dirty media.

There will be some bacteria suspended in the water column of an established tank... but it will be a very tiny fraction of the bacteria clinging to the surfaces of the dirty media.

The size of the new tank is irrelevant. It is the bio-load in the tank that determines how large of a colony of bacteria will be needed to break down the waste ammonia via the nitrogen cycle into nitrates in a timely manner.

^
This

I think the term seeded instead of dirty would keep someone new at cycling a aquarium from becoming confused.

Visit the local fish store and ask for dirty filter media. That is more effective than anything you can buy in a bottle.

While you can do this, i personally prefer not to unless you know the LFS’ tanks are clean or you / your friends dont already have a tank running where you can grab some media from...

Main reason for this is some LFS’ run all their tanks through a central filtration system, so if theres any diseases or parasites in one tank it’ll be passed to them all, which means you’ll also have the potential to be transferring them to your brand new setup which isnt ideal...

Great advice

But what about all the bacteria in a bottle quick cycle solutions?
Has anyone actually used them and had success? I've always been wary of them.

Some say it works. I personally never used bacteria in a bottle to cycle a aquarium.

Im in the same boat as you and always been iffy about bacteria in a bottle... so i’ve always just used seeded filter media from one of my old tanks when i started any new tanks for myself or friends...

However, there have been discussions about this in the past where people have explained how the Bacteria in a bottle works...

Here is a short thread talking about it...

Why is SW Bacteria In A Bottle More Reliable Than FW?

I'm doing research for a Salt Water aquarium on reef2reef and I see Biospira (a SW bacteria for sale) being mentioned a lot with people positively reviewing it each time. Bio spira seems to be much more reliable than the FW bacteria for sale like Seachem Stability among others.

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I also only use seeded biomedia for starting new tanks, but I think (if from a reputable company) there's really no issue with bacteria in a bottle (though in powder form might have better shelf life, not sure). I think RD's last post in that thread sums it up nicely Fat Homer , thx for sharing.

That said of course if using bacteria in a bottle (or pre-seeded filter media for that matter) one still needs to add a source of ammonia to feed the bacteria and help them get established, whether it's a fish or (as I prefer) some crushed pellets.

The last time I cycled a tank (a few years back) I just went straight for the house hold ammonia. I think it was about $2 and I have enough left over to cycle a couple hundred more tanks. I put 2 drops of ammonia into the new tank every day until the test kit read critical levels of ammonia. I think it took about 4 days to reach that level in the 35g tank.

Adding food / pellets works fine but you have to wait for the bacteria that breaks down the food into ammonia to colonize before you get enough ammonia to kick start the nitrifying bacteria. For those of us that are short on patients using food as an ammonia source will probably add a few excruciatingly long days to cycling the tank.

With some dirty (seeded ? ) media under the inflow in the sump it seems like it took about a week or so to get detectable levels of nitrites. Then a few more weeks to get detectable levels of nitrates. It then took a few more weeks for the high measured level of ammonia to start to drop noticeably as the colonies of bacteria started to grow and flourish.

My quoted times are very approximated as they are just my best recollection of a few years ago.

I don't care for the sacrificial fish method of cycling a tank.




(So after you use your nose tissue or toilet tissue is the tissue "DIRTY" or is it just "seeded"? LOL! )

Like everyone has mentioned already. I seeded mine with my used filter media from my other tanks. I squeezed everything out into I 5g bucket of water and dumped it into my tank. Which was a 210g tank. I let the water clear up for an hour or two and added some fish. This is how it looked when I dumped it in. Let the filter's suck up all that goodness and let the colonization begin.

With dirty media from a reputable fish store tank (not petsmart / petco etc.) The media is going to be quarentined for at least 6 - 8 weeks with out any exposuree to fish. I don't think I have ever seen a tank cycle in under 8 weeks.

But I would never put any fish in an uncycled tank.

When fish are added to the new tank after it cycles where are those fish most likely going to come from?.... LFS.

If you have existing cycled tanks by all means use media from those tanks. The LFS media suggestion was targeted at someone that has no other source of dirty media.

I'd not put it like that, I'd say till the arowana will need to be rehomed. It can vary for different keepers but if all is good and average, I'd say you would have about a year with a silver aro. Once it starts trying to jump out and hurt itself more and more, it will be your que.

Thanks a lot guys. Wasn't expecting so many replies so thank you so much.

I spoke with the fish store owner today. He ll give me the sponge from an already disease free established tank he has. I also have the Seachem stability so can you guys please tell me step by step what I need to do by using both stability and existing bb sponge? I can't get ammonia as a chemical. I wanted to do a fishless cycle but if I have to then what kind of fish shall I put which don't die. Really never want a fish to die just for the sake of cycling.

I am very confused about testing and how to make sure that the tank is already cycled? Videos about cycling are not made according to standards of a layman. They start the video by saying that LFS guides you wrong and here's how you need to cycle your tank but then they just start the same kind of explanation in difficult terms. I even had a hard time knowing what is BB as they use this short term for beneficial bacteria. I really need a step by step guide from A to Z. I ll be housing expensive fish and don't want to ruin things. Mainly my concern is when to check for the no2, no3 and ammonia levels and how will I know that my tank is now cycled and safe for the fish.

Also I will order the API freshwater test kit but I read that the "Nitrates" test is very difficult to read when its on the lower side. Is it true? Did you guys have troubles interpreting the Nitrate results from this kit?

 

[Oughtsix]

Household clear ammonia is a very common cleaning product. Where do you live?

Amazon.com: JAMES AUSTIN CO James Austin 50 Multi-Purpose Cleaner, 32 oz, Colorless, Liquid: Gateway

Buy JAMES AUSTIN CO James Austin 50 Multi-Purpose Cleaner, 32 oz, Colorless, Liquid: All-Purpose Cleaners - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

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When you fill up your tank with fresh water you will pretty much have 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 0 Nitrates. Some water supplies have a small trace amount of Nitrates in them. Run each test with your new test kit any you will have an ideas of what the results look like for healthy water.

Next you will need a source of ammonia. If you can't get household clear ammonia (even my local grocery store carries it) you will have to come up with a different source of ammonia. Dump some fish food into the tank and wait 4 weeks. Run the tests again and you should see positive results for ammonia. If you don't see any ammonia wait another week then run the tests again. Continue until you eventually get positive results for ammonia.

Run the tests once a week for the next several weeks. After ammonia is present in the tank you will eventually get positive results for Nitrites.

A few weeks later the Nitrite level will continue to go up slowly then you will start to get positive results for nitrates.

Over the next few week the Nitrite levels will eventually start to go down while the Nitrate levels keep rising. This is when your tank is getting close to being cycled. Some where around this time the water will turn a milky white for several days... this is a bacteria bloom and a good sign.

Once the Nitrite level goes down to zero your tank should be cycled. The food you added initially will continue to break down into ammonia. The first (too late and too tired to look up the name) bacteria is processing the ammonia into Nitrites. The second bacteria is consuming the Nitrites as rapidly as the first bacteria can make it and producing Nitrates from the Nitrites.

It is time to do a big water change, wait two days, test again and it the tests look good it is time to add your first one, two or three fish... but no more.

Continue to test the water weekly. There should be no Ammonia, no Nitrites and low levels of Nitrates. Once the Nitrates start to rise it is time to do a water change. Continue to test for Nitrates. Do water changes when the Nitrates start to rise. Pretty soon you will figure how often you need do water changes to maintain healthy low levels of Nitrates and you will test for Nitrates less frequently until you eventually stop testing all together.

After 3 months it is time to slowly add more fish a couple or three at a time.

The test kit is VERY easy to use. It might be difficult to tell the difference between 3ppm of Nitrates and 4ppm of Nitrates... but there is no need to have such accurate measurements. You need to know if the Nitrates are present, if the Nitrates level is low and it the Nitrate level is high. The test is plenty accurate to tell you this. When Nitrates are high you need to do a water change.

 

[Oughtsix]

P.S. After you cycle your first tank watching paint dry will seem like an exciting action packed sport... in comparison.

 

[Kashif314]

Household clear ammonia is a very common cleaning product. Where do you live?

Amazon.com: JAMES AUSTIN CO James Austin 50 Multi-Purpose Cleaner, 32 oz, Colorless, Liquid: Gateway

Buy JAMES AUSTIN CO James Austin 50 Multi-Purpose Cleaner, 32 oz, Colorless, Liquid: All-Purpose Cleaners - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

When you fill up your tank with fresh water you will pretty much have 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 0 Nitrates. Some water supplies have a small trace amount of Nitrates in them. Run each test with your new test kit any you will have an ideas of what the results look like for healthy water.

Next you will need a source of ammonia. If you can't get household clear ammonia (even my local grocery store carries it) you will have to come up with a different source of ammonia. Dump some fish food into the tank and wait 4 weeks. Run the tests again and you should see positive results for ammonia. If you don't see any ammonia wait another week then run the tests again. Continue until you eventually get positive results for ammonia.

Run the tests once a week for the next several weeks. After ammonia is present in the tank you will eventually get positive results for Nitrites.

A few weeks later the Nitrite level will continue to go up slowly then you will start to get positive results for nitrates.

Over the next few week the Nitrite levels will eventually start to go down while the Nitrate levels keep rising. This is when your tank is getting close to being cycled. Some where around this time the water will turn a milky white for several days... this is a bacteria bloom and a good sign.

Once the Nitrite level goes down to zero your tank should be cycled. The food you added initially will continue to break down into ammonia. The first (too late and too tired to look up the name) bacteria is processing the ammonia into Nitrites. The second bacteria is consuming the Nitrites as rapidly as the first bacteria can make it and producing Nitrates from the Nitrites.

It is time to do a big water change, wait two days, test again and it the tests look good it is time to add your first one, two or three fish... but no more.

Continue to test the water weekly. There should be no Ammonia, no Nitrites and low levels of Nitrates. Once the Nitrates start to rise it is time to do a water change. Continue to test for Nitrates. Do water changes when the Nitrates start to rise. Pretty soon you will figure how often you need do water changes to maintain healthy low levels of Nitrates and you will test for Nitrates less frequently until you eventually stop testing all together.

After 3 months it is time to slowly add more fish a couple or three at a time.

The test kit is VERY easy to use. It might be difficult to tell the difference between 3ppm of Nitrates and 4ppm of Nitrates... but there is no need to have such accurate measurements. You need to know if the Nitrates are present, if the Nitrates level is low and it the Nitrate level is high. The test is plenty accurate to tell you this. When Nitrates are high you need to do a water change.

P.S. After you cycle your first tank watching paint dry will seem like an exciting action packed sport... in comparison.

Seriously? Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. This looks like painfully long process. Even with an established filter media I ll have to wait such long?

 

[Phantom_Storm]

Great tips.. I've used bacteria in a bottle along with a canister from an existing tank but will have to try some of the techniques mentioned here for my next project. Thanks for sharing

 

[Oughtsix]

Seriously? Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. This looks like painfully long process. Even with an established filter media I ll have to wait such long?

I found bottled ammonia seems to knock a couple/few weeks off the time it takes to cycle a tank. But, yes it does take a long time to cycle a tank.

I would also reccomend that you choose cheap hearty fish for your first few fish. My LFS will take them in trade at 50% of selling price when you want to progress into fancier fish.

 

[Kashif314]

I found bottled ammonia seems to knock a couple/few weeks off the time it takes to cycle a tank. But, yes it does take a long time to cycle a tank.

I would also reccomend that you choose cheap hearty fish for your first few fish. My LFS will take them in trade at 50% of selling price when you want to progress into fancier fish.

Thanks. I am unsure if to to go for a cycle with fish inside. My LFS is very co operative but I am a bit skeptical about a cycle with fish.

 

[Kashif314]

One question please. I will get a filter media from an existing tank which will have bb from the store and if I do a fishless cycle do I need to install that sponge right away or first let the ammonia build in the tank and then put that media in the filter?