Cycling a tank?

Question

How long do i need to wait to have my tank completely cycled? And is there anything that will speed it up??

Answer 1

The time can vary depending on temperature, method of cycling, and how you maintain your tank during the process.

You didn't specify fresh or saltwater, but I'm gearing my answer toward freshwater.

Cycling is all about the bacteria population. If you start with a few, it takes longer for the population to build. Start with a lot, you get the amount needed for your tank size in a shorter period of time. You can get a population boost by adding bacteria from substrate or filter media from an existing tank (make sure it's disease-free!), or using a bacterial "starter" you can purchase. I'd advise some research if you buy a starter, because the effectiveness will depend on storage and age of the culture - not all work equally well. (you can buy starters for saltwater as well, or use live rock)

Bacteria have a metabolism like other living things - If you keep them in a warmer tank (76-78o) they'll multiply faster than one at 65o, cutting down on the cycling time.

If you do partial water changes (25% or less) while the tank's cycling, keep substrate disturbance to a minimum. Too many people i deal with see cloudy water and have the urge to break down the tank and wash everything out - including the bacteria! I like to siphon just the surface of the substrate, or rotate deeper cleaning if necessary. If you're using a filter that has more than one pad, alternate changing them - bacteria reside on these too.

Bacteria need a food source. If you've got fish in the tank, no problem. If you're doing a fishless cycle, you'll need to add either a pinch of fish food or pure ammonia to the tank so the bacteria don't starve until the cycling process completes. You'll know when you reach this point by your water tests.

Answer 2

Typically a tank takes 4-6 weeks to cycle. The best thing you can do is lightly stock it with a few hardy fish. If they are in distress from ammonia, a 20% water change can help, but don't do it every day, as you will remove too much bacteria and slow the cycle down.
There's products like Hagen Cycle which will shorten the cycle time a little, maybe by 1-2 weeks.

Answer 3

Cycling a tank isn't about a matter of weeks when it comes to fresh water. It is a matter of when the water quality stabalizes.

You need a test kit. Once the ammonia settles at less than .25 it is cycled.

The only way to fishless cycle to speed this process up is to add a piece of frozen shrimp or fish into the tank. You can also feed the tank on a daily basis to allow the food to rot. Do your 25% water changes weekly.

It is a matter of testing your water.

Answer 4

I am not sure what you are talking about. Are you talking about how long it will take for the water to cycle through the filter? If this is the case you can take the gallons per minute that the filter pumps and divide that into the number of gallons in the tank. This isn't really a true figure because much of the water will go through twice and some of it will not go through once in that period of time.
There is really nothing you can do to speed it up because the pump for the filter runs at a fixed rate.

Answer 5

I have to assume you are talking about cycling a new tank?

Freshwater? Fishless cycling?
If so, my favorite product is Bio-Spira. It takes approx 3-5 days and can be found on the internet or at your LFS.

If you already have a tank cycling and have fish in there, live plants may help speed the cycling.

Normal cycling usually takes approx 4 weeks.

Answer 6

Assuming that you have ammonia source, initial cycling will take 4 to 5 weeks.

If you know someone who have a healthy tank and he can spare some filter media, take a bunch of this media and drop it into your new filter and it'll probably cut the time down by half or even less depending on how much media you could hijack ;). The good thing about this is that you could even avoid the dreaded Ammonia spike with this method.

There are commerical bacterial booster but I don't have much faith in them. I rather not use them so I wouldn't recommend them to u.

Answer 7

you should do it once a month, just take about a 5 foot garden hose (garden hose to drain it faster), and get 2 five gallon buckets.. place one end of the hose in the tank, and the other end make sure it is hanging below the water line in your tank, so it will continuously drain, suck on the hose till water starts coming out, then put that end of the hose into the bucket, when you are ready to switch buckets, just switch the hose over, and go dump the other bucket.. keep doing it over and over.. depending on the size of your fish, leave enough water in there for them to swim.. or put them in a 3rd bucket of water.