your thoughts,,,,,

[flukekiller]

i have to wait for things to cure and such with in the tank,, also need to finish the backround,,,
so basically i am looking on your thoughts for starting the fishless cycle early.
i am using 2 55 gallon drums with K1 so my thoughts are :
what if i set the filter up in a temporary closed system,, meaning water only in the filter not the tank and start the cycle in the filter with the water/ammonia going from one drum with the K1 to the second drum and back to the first(closed system) this way i can start the filter cycling while im working/waiting on getting the rest of the tank up and running ?

 

[Danh]

Of course. Why not? You can also try to find some seeded media to put in it.

 

[flukekiller]

thanks,, i figured that but was just to see some thoughts

 

[JK47]

the closed loop idea is a solid one to save time but if it's fishless it really is OK either way you go. For fishless cycle at my house I wring out a seeded sponge into the water column and add pure ammonia one would find at a hardware store etc... Once there is no more ammonia or nitrite, BOOM add fish. Usuallly takes between 3-4 days tops.

 

[flukekiller]

Thanks.. yeah it's a time thing... never have cycled a tank in less than a week... plus a tank with this much media I want to give plenty of time, so basically 2 birds with one stone

 

[JK47]

Thanks.. yeah it's a time thing... never have cycled a tank in less than a week... plus a tank with this much media I want to give plenty of time, so basically 2 birds with one stone

Try not to get too wrapped up in the amount of media. The bacterial colonies will only grow to the size of the food source x surface area. Additional surface area (more media) does little good in the fishless cycling process unless you are heavy on the food source, in this case manually adding ammonia. The additional media comes into play as you start heavily stocking a tank and at that point you would have been 'cycled" well before heavy stocking.

 

[flukekiller]

JK47 thanks for the input,, the reason why i had asked about a lot of media is b/c i do plan on a large ammonia load to keep my bio high as i plan on adding a bunch of fish at once. i have done tons of fishless cycles just not on this scale also not as a closed loop.. appreciate the info and thanks for helping to confirm my thoughts.

 

[rodger]

Great idea!