Easiest way to cycle a tank??

[Ali1]

K, well I don't own a dirty filter.. My question is on what to do w/ a brand new tank, brand new filter, etc.. nothing Im using in cycling my tank will be used/dirty.

You can buy ammonia from Ace Hardware, its labeled as janitorial Ammonia source. Once you finish cycling your tank, then do a large water change to remove a portion of the nitrates.


PS
Always remember whenever you add new water, add dechlorinator. Any questions, pm me

 

[Crazyfish88]

For me fastest way to cycle a tank is take water from your already set up tank, take at least 50% then I open up my canister filters and fill up my new filters with it. I take half of my old bio media, put in new canister filters and replace new bio media to the older filters(split media with both new and old filters). Let the new tank run and throw in fish. The fish in the new tank are fine and I do it this way all the time. If you get worried just buy a bottle of cycle(bacteria supplement) and add on top of it.

 

[-DC-]

oh, well if that is th case my metod wont work... keep it in mind for your second tank , the ammonia methon listed above aparently works i have never tried it myself though, and remember when cycling the long way either with ammonia, or some treatment purchased you dont want to put to much stock (fish) in the tank right way, onced cycled put a few then slowly ad more... to let things balance out...
give
( I purchse my fish from a local guy who has a few monster setups, and for my very first tank he was nice enough to dump one of his dirty filters into a bucket, and tossed in the really dirty filter floss... I dumped the water into my tank, and squeezed as much of t)he mulm out of the floss as i could into the water, then put it into my new filter, do you know anyone who you trust has a healthy tank to get some grime from lol)

 

[-DC-]

crazyfish88, that's the same concept as me , adding the mulm directly to the new water for 2 reasons, 1- i can just fill the tank with tap water from a hose and ad de-clor rather then lug buckets from one tank to another lol, and secondly, i use sand in many tanks, and that "mulm'd up water" really speeds up how fast the sand settels... then it ends up in the filter withing a couple hours any way, but both way's work

 

[stevenrox]

you have to cycle tanks......?

 

[Crazyfish88]

crazyfish88, that's the same concept as me , adding the mulm directly to the new water for 2 reasons, 1- i can just fill the tank with tap water from a hose and ad de-clor rather then lug buckets from one tank to another lol, and secondly, i use sand in many tanks, and that "mulm'd up water" really speeds up how fast the sand settels... then it ends up in the filter withing a couple hours any way, but both way's work

Ya it is the same way but I don't lug buckets back and forth, I use a 25' Aquaria Vac and siphon all the gunk from my existing tank with gravel and transfer from 1 tank to the other. No need lugging buckets here

 

[-DC-]

you have to cycle tanks......?

you should, it's better for the fish, without a cycle your water parameters will be all over the place for a while untill it eventually cycles on it's own, but this can be very hard on fish. If your going to do this start with cheap fish

 

[csa dad]

yeah buddy make sure its cycled or you could lose all the fish in the tank with an ammonia spike. trust me i lost a 15 cause my dad got them form somebody at work an my tank hadnt had time to cycle an all but two died an 1 lone raphael is still kicking. had 18 total to start way to many to begin

 

[mos90]

The "easiest" method to cycle a tank is to add ammonia everyday to reach 4ppm. You stop adding ammonia when readings show:

ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: Above 0ppm

i like this method. took 2 weeks to cycle my 125.

 

[-DC-]

2 weeks isnt bad... But nothing beats 2 minutes!