I jump started cycling with a filter, gravel, and water from a cycled tank,how long will my tank take cycling?

Question

I jump started my 30 gallon tank with about 2 pounds of gravel, 5 gallons of water, and the filter from my 10 gallon tank. About how long will my 30 gallon take to cycle? I ran out of master test kits a week ago and haven't been in to buy more.

Answer 1

I did that with my 30 gal... took less than a week to cycle. Just make sure you don't put in too many fish at once...take it slowly.

Answer 2

There's really no way to accurately predict this without testing the water. For instance, the temperature of the tank will influence the rate at which the bacteria will grow. Also, did you add a source of ammonia (pure ammonia, fish food, or hardy fish) and if so, how much? If you didn't use fish, but one of the other items, are you doning water changes, how often, and what volume? All these go into factoring the length of time needed.

You will need to have a source of ammonia in the tank, or the bacteria present in the gravel and media will begin to die (ammonia is their source of nutrients). You can add a pinch of fish flakes that'll decompose and create ammonia for this, and you can turn up your heater to increase the rate of reproduction which will reduce the time needed, but the only way to know for certain that the cycling has run it's entire cycle is to test the water to see if ammonia and nitrite are being entirely converted to nitrate.

Given that you used the gravel and filter, you're starting with a higher amount of bacteria in the tank, so this will eliminate at lot of the time necessary, as long as you've kept it "fed", but I'd still expect it to take a few weeks. Can't be more exact than that.

Answer 3

Well you certainly will need new test kits to actually determine whether your tank is cycled; that is the ONLY way to tell. Are you providing some source of ammonia to the tank, such as having a fish in there or feeding the tank with fish food? If not, sorry to say but you are starving the bacteria, not cycling your tank. They need a source of ammonia to start the nitrogen cycle, as without that, they won't grow. As far as how long it should take, sometimes even borrowing from an established tank it takes the full amount of time for a new tank because something kills the bacteria, some times the bacteria grow so fast the tank never has measurable ammonia or nitrite.