Cycling

[guggas]

I had planned to do this last year, but with moving and a job change I decided to delay it until now.
I finally got around to cleaning out my 120g tank and I'm currently in the doldrums of cycling. I've read quite a bit on this forum, but have not bought any discus yet. I'm thinking I will start with 6 4" discus bare bottom, but would eventually like to add in some wood, german blue rams, and tetras. I built the stand myself, its somewhat of a work in progress still though, it needs another coat of paint and some door knobs.
The art on the front is compliments of my 3 year old and Crayola. A couple of pics: 120g-ss.jpgof (2)-s.jpgSump-s.jpg

The sump is pretty simple, its a 29g with poret foam, and i plan to add in a filter sock before I put fish in. Im wondering if a filter sock is a good solution, to keep the sump from getting filthy, or if I should try to put a prefilter in the overflow box somehow. Suggestions?

On the left side there is a Danner Mag 9.5 pump to assist getting water from my barrel to the sump. It will fill the 120g tank from empty in about 9 minutes.
Barrel-s.jpg
The barrel is in the garage.

I'm getting pretty anxious waiting for it to cycle, I've considered trying a bottle of Seachem Stability to see if it would speed it up. I know peoples experiance with that has ranged from: its a pointless waste of money to, It's a miracle. Is there any reason why I would not want to put that in my tank? I've also just considered buying fish and doing large water changes untill the cycle happens...

[DonMD]

Adding stability can’t hurt. I added nite-out, still took 6 weeks.

[Phillydubs]

Hey Ryan welcome and nice start! Tank is looking good and the stand is nice, especially for a DIY, Can't wait to see it all painted up.

I would def add a sock or something to filter out the waste before it gets in the sump. There are many types and methods you have to find what works for you. I got 10 high micron socks and double them up, I change them with each water change when I get 6 or so I simply run a wash with a small level of bleach, a few rinses and they are good to go. Some people find the process annoying but it keeps my sump clean so I do it. I too have thought of some "prefilter for the over flow but never really came across anything or made one myself, if you come up with something, please share!!

You could add a booster but as Don said, they often don't help a ton. You could also ask who your fish come from to supply a seeded sponge. Or you could just really stay on top of it and get fish and do big daily changes. Patience is hard, trust me I have zero, but choose the best route for you.