Fastest Way To Cycle A Tank [Archive]

Dave C

11-16-2003, 11:21 PM

Put in enough ammonia to register 5ppm on a test kit. Then add a live plant or two, in pots or loose and a media bag with gravel from a safe cycled tank with healthy fish. Then leave it alone, no w/c no add'l ammonia, just monitor the ammonia, then the nitrite and finally test for nitrate. I've had them register 0 nitrite and lots of nitrate in 14 days with this method.

Carol_Roberts

11-16-2003, 11:22 PM

Run the filter in an exisiting (cycled) tank for two weeks.

Richman

11-17-2003, 12:18 AM

Keep an extra filter running in your tanks. Just transfer the filter, and instant cycle. Then add a new filter back in the old tank. Presto, ready for next time.

RyanH

11-17-2003, 12:30 AM

I try to keep a few extra Hydro-Sponges and aquaclears running on my tanks all the time then I don't have to screw around with cycling a tank. I just fill it add some conditioner and let it sit for a day or two to let the pH moderate and its ready to go.

Brian-pdx

11-17-2003, 08:02 PM

If you don't have a current system to migrate filters from, look for BioSpira from Marineland. My broken record, but it' s only been out for a year or so, and word of mouth takes time. Refrigerated, expensive, hard to find. But! You can add all your fish right away! (for those of us who are NOT patient!)

lesley

11-18-2003, 02:00 AM

Hi Murphy,

This has worked for me.

I have found that you are able to start a new tank off by squeezing out filter material from am existing tank into your new tank. Looks horrible but clears quickly and your new aquarium is up and running. Make sure that you get enough "gunk" to jump start your new aquarium.

If you don't have an already existing tank and are buying some discus, you could ask the seller to squeeze the filter
material into a plastic bag with aquarium water and take it with you. Don't leave lying around too long, as bacteria will die without oxygen. I did this with my first lot of discus and the tank was fine. I wouldn't do it now that I already have other tank/s at home because of the risk of infection, but this was starting off completely new and I figured that the fish would be immune to the bugs in their existing situation.

As was mentioned previously,I now always have an extra sponge or two in one of my tanks.

Make sure you test at least daily for the first week to make sure that your tank is behaving like a cycled tank should.

Alan

11-19-2003, 03:52 AM

The fastest I've done it is get water from my 180g tank as I do a water change and fill the new tank (a 29g) to 80%. Then filled the rest with tap. Put the sponge filter (new) in and double-dosed it with Cycle for the first week. Oh, the fish went in the tank the same day I put in the water. ;D

ronrca

11-19-2003, 10:50 AM

Wow Alan! Talk about taking chances with your fish!

Oh, the fish went in the tank the same day I put in the water. A bio filter takes minimum 2 weeks to actually mature using established filter media (depending on the bio size of the existing tank). This is because the bacteria responsible for ammonia levels reproduce or divide 6-12 hours, bacteria that consume nitrites divide around 24 hours or so. This reproduction however takes place when food is present.

Bacteria usually does not live in the water but colonizes on surfaces preferably in places with a good flow of water (more food available). Places like inside the filter are excellant. Therefore just using water from an existing tank (unless you have a bacteria bloom in the existing tank) will not significantly impact the cycle.

Using products such as Cycle imo is more or less dirty water and can not be proven to actually work.

What kind of fish did you put in the tank btw? ;)
Did you test for ammonia/nitrite levels?
HTH ;D

RandalB

11-19-2003, 11:08 AM

ronrca

11-19-2003, 11:10 AM

That is true Randal and with any other type of fish I sometimes do it that way but not with my discus! ;D From my own experience, even then with lots of water changes, ammonia/nitrites build up causing distress.

Rick_May

11-19-2003, 11:41 AM

I really hate the term "Cycle a tank"......Please, do we really think the glass is going to cycle? It’s led to a lot of confusion where people are waiting for their "Tank" to cycle. Your "Tank" will never cycle, your filter will. The fastest way to start using a new tank is to add a cycled filter. The fastest way to cycle a filter is to add it to running tank with a cycled filter or better yet always keep a tank with an extra filter running then just swap out one of the cycled filters for the new filter.

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now.

ronrca

11-19-2003, 03:33 PM

Now we are getting like really technical here! LOL! (Its like you actually dont fill up your car with gas as you commonly hear! You really fill the gas tank in your car!) ;) ;D

I think that is it understood that when talking about cycling a tank, the tank itself made out of glass is not the item in question. I know that beginners may be confused about it at first but quickly understand what it means! When someone indicates that they are 'cycling their tank', it more or less indicates that they have their tank setup with water in it, filter running, heater, lights, fish or ammonia! :soapbox:

Btw, you dont really you were actually on a soap box? LOL!
JK! ;D

Murphy

11-19-2003, 03:43 PM

Hi..... it's great to hear everyones thoughts on how you each deal with this. Unfortunately I dont have any tanks up and running at the moment so I dont have a seasoned filter to draw upon. However!, I do have a garden pond with Koi in it ( 5000gal) and wonder if it would help if I filled the tank with seasoned pond water. What do you think?.

Nightowl

11-19-2003, 03:53 PM

I must agree w/ the use of Bio-spira as the fastest way to cycle a tank...I've used it 4 times. New tank, new water , new filter....discus went right in. One tank had slight nitrite the second day, but normally you wouldn't see nitrites on day 2. They were gone in a couple of days. Another tank was cloudy for 9 or 10 days but there was ZERO ammo. and nitrite readings
The extra sponges from other tanks work, and Lesley's method is probably the next best thing to Bio Spira. I'm not a big fan of the daily w/change while a tank is cycling, but that's just me. My own experience is it delays the cycling period..at least it seemed to, but I have no scientific proof either way.
Be bold...try the Bio Spira J.T.

Rick_May

11-19-2003, 04:45 PM

Peter,
I wouldn't consider the pond as a option. You just dont know what kind of bugs ore living in it. with a pond being in the open anything could have hitched a ride, and is now happly living in your pond.

Paulio

11-19-2003, 05:06 PM

Im with Randal. I change water so fast around here that in *most* situations it isnt a big deal. If you are planning on heavy bio load the media will still need to cycle more once it is under the increased load. Change water. lots of water and often.

Paul

ronrca

11-19-2003, 07:36 PM

Agree with not using the pond as established media for the reasons mentioned by Rick! ;)

Alan

11-21-2003, 06:09 AM

What kind of fish did you put in the tank btw? ;)
Did you test for ammonia/nitrite levels?

It was a Q tank and I put discus in it. I didn't test for ammonia levels anymore.

Unfortunately, I haven't "streamlined" my quarantine procedure at the time and I may have OD'ed 3 of the fish with met that may have caused a chemical reaction with the melafix that I put in the tank for the 1st week (I put carbon for about 4 days but I think I didn't do enough WC). :'( Nowadays, my Q procedure is just high heat and high salt the first week and watch for symptoms for the next 5 weeks.

I did the same "cycling" procedure with a 40 gallon tank prior to the 29 gallon QT but I put in the fish 24 hours after I put in the water. The fish I put in were cichlids and oscars. These fish are doing well, except the oscars have killed some of their tankmates :-X Also, I didn't do any quarantine procedure on the 40 gallon tank since I've had the fish for quite a while. I just needed to transfer them to the new tank.

Alan

11-21-2003, 06:12 AM

Don't cycle the tank. It will cycle itself over time. Light fish load and WC WC WC WC WC. I haven't cycled a tank in over a year. The filters eventually catch up and you're good to go.
JMHO,
RandalB

I agree with Randal. If you're going to do significant WC's everyday, there's no chance for ammonia/nitrate/nitrite to build up. There's really no rational to cycle the tank.

ronrca

11-21-2003, 10:17 AM

If you're going to do significant WC's everyday, there's no chance for ammonia/nitrate/nitrite to build up. Yes you will! Believe me, Im talking from experience! I had 12 2" discus in a 30G tank, 50-75% wc's everyday with aged water! I was fighting ammonia levels in the first week and nitrite levels for 2 weeks after that. Thank goodness for Prime! And this 30G did have an established fitler. The bio was just too small since I had 2 5" discus attempting to breed in before.

Unless you are really understocked and do wc's every 6 hours, ammonia and nitrites will build up over the coarse of the day. Feces and leftover food is not the only thing that causes ammonia. Fish respiration also expel ammonia.

Alan

11-21-2003, 04:21 PM

I had 12 2" discus in a 30G tank, 50-75% wc's everyday with aged water! I was fighting ammonia levels in the first week and nitrite levels for 2 weeks after that. Thank goodness for Prime! And this 30G did have an established fitler. The bio was just too small since I had 2 5" discus attempting to breed in before.

I did underline "significant WC's everyday." ;D

Maybe it's the water where you live or something else in the water that caused the ammonia spike in the first week. But here's a post from Jeff in another thread:

Good question Gary. Some things I'm not sure the US is ready for. On my trip I visited over 20 farms. The farms in Singapore are much smaller than the farms in Malaysia. I was told that Malaysia has over 100 discus farms. Several farms in Malaysia had over 500 tanks. The one thing I noticed the most is they only feed a beefheart/seafood/vitamin mix. No flake, no BW, and no live food. Second most farms change water 2x daily and some 3x. Third because of the frequent wcs none of them use any filters at all!!! Just airstones. Fourth they believe in packing the tanks heavier than we do. They say it promotes faster growth and less runting.

If anyone else has any questions I can answer ask away. Remember its just my opinion and I usually don't hold back. I call it like I see it. ;D

ronrca

11-21-2003, 04:39 PM

Maybe it's the water where you live or something else in the water that caused the ammonia spike in the first week.Probably not as Im still doing daily 50% wc's and not problems, 0 ammonia/nitrite. I did have readings of ammonia/nitrite when I introduced the 12 discus so despite the wc's, the bio still had to cycle! I just would not recommend anyone particularly beginners not to cycle their tanks! Just asking for trouble! Id rather be safe than sorry with my discus! ;)

I did underline "significant WC's everyday." Significant being.....? 100% twice or three times a day? Well, that very well could be a different story! I wouldnt necessary call that significant! More like .....like insane or something! LOL!

Alan

11-21-2003, 05:35 PM

Significant being.....? 100% twice or three times a day? Well, that very well could be a different story! I wouldnt necessary call that significant! More like .....like insane or something! LOL!

50% to 70% daily WC worked for me in my new QT.

As for the 100%, the wild discus export farms in South America are doing it. I guess they're insane. And everyone's buying the discus from them, so I guess everyone's insane. LOL!

lesley

11-21-2003, 08:51 PM

I would have to second ronrca's experience here, whereby the one time I tried to control the nitrites by water changes (I didn't put in enough filter material to start off a bigger tank, and I couldn't get Biro-Spira in my part of the world) my fish had massive problems. I had raised them from babies and they were being moved to a bigger tank. They had always loved water changes and you had to be careful not to syphon them up!! After their experiences during this traumatic period where I couldn't keep the nitrites down even with two 90% changes per day they have never been the same during water changes - they always go to the corner and mutter quietly! It took a week to get on top of it and some weeks for the nitrites to work out of their systems and for them to behave normally. I recently lost one that had stopped growing during this period and I feel that it was due to damage from the high nitrites.

When I put this group into their final 6' planted tank, I started it off with everything little bit of gunk that I could squeeze out of my filters in my other tanks and it worked perfectly. They were never "quite right" in this middle tank and I shifted them straight into the 6' when it was set up because of this. They went almost immediately back to their old relaxed selves and I had NO cycling problems.

I would think that if you have perfect water at the right temperature and a setup where your new water is gently replacing your old continually, it would be great. How many of us have that??? Certainly not me!! If you are not matching your water parameters exactly then the large changes are also adding additional stress.

Just my personal experiences.

Lesley

Alan

11-21-2003, 11:29 PM

Hi Lesley,

First you agree with ronrca then you go for perfect water ;D

Anyway, your "dream" set-up is being done by a lazy guy named Anand. ;D This doesn't have to do with cycling anymore but a tank set-up. It's called a continuous drip. It doesn't have to be perfect water, too. ;D Here's the link:

http://daah.info/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=3580;sta rt=0

Alan

Nightowl

11-22-2003, 01:32 AM

I have experienced what both ronrca and Lesley have experienced: in a new, not properly cycled tank of discus( or other fish as well), changing large amounts of water when nitrites were high did not eliminate them from the water. Yes, it helps to lower them but they go up again, and its risky business. Fortunately, discus are strong fish and can take some of that. Do you know what would happen to a tankful of Rams or Cardinal tetras? they'd be dead. If you don't believe me, try it .
As far as general water changes go, am I the only person that does NOT change 50% in every tank every day?I'd like to know.
Getting to original question on thread: Bio-Spira.
J.T. :vanish:

Rosskeegan24

01-12-2017, 11:32 AM

New to discus keeping, how do i keep the nitrates down during the first week of the fish being in the tank ?

Lido

01-12-2017, 07:35 PM

Pee pee in the water, add bacteria. Wait 24 hours add fish.

Really don't do that...

The best way has been said 15 times, filter media from another tank.

rickmiles

01-13-2017, 01:51 AM

Put a few "Evolution Aqua Pure Pond" balls in the inside of the sponge filter, then add discus/fish it works great.

Rick Mileski Sr

Kyla

01-13-2017, 08:36 AM

ross did you mean to say "ammonia" or "nitrate"?

Ash92

01-29-2017, 06:04 PM

DYDave82

01-30-2017, 02:32 AM

Bio-wheel from a penguin Marineland filter. Great filter if you don't mind changing impellers every other month. :mad: I've rapidly cycled 5 large tanks with a good ol' bio wheel. That being said -- my house can't hold many more tanks so changing up the high maintenance marine lands soon with an eheim canisters. God bless green wheels of life.

peewee1

06-30-2020, 08:56 AM

My $0.02....

Don't cycle the tank. It will cycle itself over time. Light fish load and WC WC WC WC WC. I haven't cycled a tank in over a year. The filters eventually catch up and you're good to go.
JMHO,
RandalB

An old thread but this is what I do as well. Twice anyway. I don't know why it works for me to fill the tank, bring it to the temperature that I desire, and then add the fish. Two years have passed for the fist time that I did this. Three weeks ago I set up a breeding tank. I let it cycle for three days then moved the breeding pair from the tank they were in to their new home. I must have forgiving water for this to work. I do water change on a normal schedule of 100% per week spread over 7 days. I am not suggesting that you try this I am simply saying that when I set up the first I did not know about cycling nor did I know about this forum. And it worked so why would I think any different the second time?

Vinni Smith

06-30-2020, 12:06 PM

I usually have an extra sponge filter running somewhere.
However, some nitrites can creep in daily until more bacteria can grow, I have noticed.
It takes a while for the tank to become mature even with the old healthy sponge filter added.

After reading this thread I ordered some Bio-Spira Freshwater version today.
To be here tomorrow.
When the new acrylic tank gets here, I will put an existing sponge filter in it and I will add the Bio-Spira as well.
just to see how things go.