How long will it take for my tank to cycle?

Question

I have a 50 gallon tank and 3 black mollies. Can someone tell me approximately how long should it be before the ammonia levels start rising. Also, how long will it take to completely cycle. I know there is no way to give an exact answer, but just a close educated guess is what I am after here.

I do realize that these 3 fish (being the first in this new tank) are probably going to get hit with problems due to the ammonia. It has been almost 2 weeks and very little rise in ammonia levels so far. I usually test every 2 days until I see changes then every day til things start going down again.

As for using goldfish to cycle the tank, I don't like to do that because most of the smaller and cheaper ones are sold as feeder fish and can easily carry disease. I sure don't want to start out bringing in illnesses.

Answer 1

Hi,
In my experience, parts of the previous answers are correct, and parts are incorrect.
1) TRUE- it will take longer to completely cycle a tank if you only change the water once per week- HOWEVER- you may loose your fish between water changes because when fish are first introduced to new water(in a new tank) their ammonia levels spike because they are so stressed out. If you wait 7 days to water change you may have to change out 85-90% of the water. Think of it this way- you sit in a tub of water all day every day, while you're in there your body slowly releases salt into the water. As each day passes more and more of the salt is released into the water, which means there's less good/healthy water for you. My recommendation would be to do about a 10-15% water change daily, or a 25-30% water change every other day to dilute the ammonia so that the fish can breathe.
As well, purchase a good amount of "StressCoat" and "StressZyme". Read the directions on the bottles and with each water change/each day add the recommended amount of chemical to the water. The StressZyme will help the bacteria grow quicker- which is what you want. The bacteria in the tank that grows actually 'eats' the ammonia to help keep it balanced.
Do you or someone you know already have an established tank? If so take some of the used filters from one of those tanks and either put it under the rocks if you have an undergravel filter, or tuck it behind the 'suck tube' if you have a 'waterfall type' filter. That bacteria from the other tank will help tremendously. Just make sure it's not from a goldfish tank-goldfish are naturally more acidic than fancy fish.
ALSO remember not to overfeed- uneaten food will add to the ammonia level as well. Test your Ph every 3 days- high Ph will kill fish within 2 days.
Watch their activity- if you come home or wake up and notice that they're suddenly a lot more scatty or zippy than normal, do an immediate 50% water change- the ammonia is too high and they can't breathe!
The full cycle with the help of the StressCoat/StressZyme should take 4-6 weeks. Then if you want to add more fish do it one or two at a time- and when you add them, you need to restart the frequent water changes because the fish will become stressed again. It won't take near as long to get the newbies comfy, maybe 2-3 weeks, but after you get all your fishies in there, you will certainly have a lot to enjoy!
Oh, and also, fish like a diet variety too, it will help them keep from getting dull, so while flake food is a main nutrition source for these types of communities, Spirunela (or however you spell it, I can't rememberoffhand) and some other kind of Brine Shrimp or a mixture of Veggie flakes with your tropical flakes is good too. There's also a flake out called "first flake" that is good for new fish and stressed fish, so until your tank finishes cycling, try feeding that to them as their regular food, that will help too.

Good luck!!

Answer 2

Excellent! [It varies, however] You should see ammonia levels rising in a week or so followed by a lowering of ammonia and rise of nitrite in the second week. If all goes well, a lowering of those levels and a rise of nitrate should occur after about 3 weeks. When ammonia and nitrite levels have dropped to zero gradually add more fish.
Do a partial water change about once a week during the process and the more water you change, the longer the cycle will take to complete. The original fish [during these high levels] may have some permanent ill-health. Hope all goes well.

Answer 3

Your mollies will start pooping directly after feeding, causing the ammonia to rise to high levels after 3-4 hours. The best thing you can do is hold your mollies in a mature tank and buy some goldfish. drop the goldfish in your tank and wait about 4 days. After 4 days there should be enough nitrifieng bacteria in your tank to reduce ammonia levels to 0. After that just do a 10 percent water change ever 3 days to lower the nitrite levels until the other bacteria develope(i forget the name but they turn nitrite to nitrate). This entire process usually takes about a week. But if you dont remove your mollies then tey will have permenant ammonia burns and probaby wont be active untill they eventualy die.

Answer 4

That would depend. How long has your tank been running already? Cycling can take as little as two weeks or as long as 6. Ammonia should start spiking around 2-3 days however you already have fish it could be as little as 2. Test your water every day. If it has been running two weeks, you may have already missed most of the spiking.

Here is a good web page that explains this:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

Answer 5

Usually ammonia will start showing on your test kit within 3-4 days. The total time to complete the cycle could run as long as a month to 5 weeks.

MM

Answer 6

3 fish in a 50 gallon tank along time would be a good guess

Answer 7

Probably about a week with good water movement and a good filter.