how long does bacteria supplement have to be in atank before putting my fish back in?

Answer 1

Where are you keeping the fish now? If they are not in a cycled tank, they will suffer more than if you put them back in now!

How big is your tank? How many fish? Don't overcrowd. One inch of small thin fish per gallon of water. As the fish get fatter, they need more than one gallon per inch.

Put the fish back in the tank, you can way overdose (add more) on the bacteria supplement and not worry about harming the fish. The bacteria are all beneficial and will need to have some fish waste to work with so they can multiply and keep the water stable.

A tank needs 2-3 weeks before it is completely cycled in and will go through phases of cloudiness and smellyness before it is completely cycled. Both the cloudiness and smell will clear up by themselves. You can, however, put fresh carbon in your filter to remove the smell. I would keep the "old carbon" in the tank for a while though, it will contain millions of good bacteria that you don't want to throw out until the cycling is done. During this time, you should change about 20% of the water every 4-5 days to keep the ammonia levels in check. Ammonia kills as many fish as pH shock.

Once it is cycled, do regular (weekly) partial (25-30%) water changes. That is the single most important thing you can do to keep your fish healthy and happy and the tank clean and clear. Siphon the gravel about every six weeks to remove fish waste and uneaten food which decays into ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

Answer 2

To support a baterial colony, you need food for the bacterial so you can just leave your fishes in the tank. The fishes will be the source of ammonia for the bacterial. From what I am aware of, most bacterial supplement doesn't require the fish to be remove from the tank, so it should be pretty "fish-Safe", UNLESS it stated on the direction of the supplement to remove the fish.

This is off subject. Personnally I don't have much faith in those bacterial supplement stuff. I can't imagine how the bacterial survive in the bottle as the food source is bound to be consumed sooner or later, so the shelf life would be pretty short. I don't really know how it works, but unless the bacterial can be put into a long term hybernation mode or suspended animation mode, they'll probably be dead when we purchase the product off the shelf?

A better suggestion would be for you to collect some bio-media from a friends established (cycled) tank, and as long as the source tank is healthy, I believe that will be the best way to jump start the cycling process.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I'd give it a week to do it's work and slowly add the fish back in. I'd put 1 or 2 fish in every 2-4 days until theya re all back in. You don't want to shock the system again.

Answer 4

I would wait 24 hours but it should say on the packaging.