72 Gallon Bow Front Aquarium

[Sickbound]

I finally got the aquarium I've always wanted! It was used at my lfs for $398 with everything I need except the lid.
I have 5 x-ray tetra in there right now helping to cycle it. I've also seeded the tank with substrate, a piece of drift wood, and a large rock from my other aquarium.

How long do you think it will take for the tank to be fully cycled?
I'm planning on having 2 full grown Raphael catfish (8") and 1 black belt cichlid (9") in there (all 3 on reserve for me at the same lfs). : D (the tetras will be moved over to my 30 gallon when they have served their purpose in this tank.)

 

[snazy]

How long do you think it will take for the tank to be fully cycled?
 

 
Well, first of all it will never be fully cycled because it will only grow bacteria to support 5 x-ray tetras. So in reality, after this stage is finished, you'd need to be really careful with future stocking and you should add just a small percentage of the bio load already in at one time every couple of weeks, which would be like half a tetra at a time..... if that's possible doing 

 
Also, a fish in cycle will take ages, maybe 3 months depending because you need to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels to below 0.25ppm, 0 preferably via daily large water changes. Otherwise your fish will die.
 
I'd suggest you return these fish and do a fishless ammonia cycle instead. You can find instructions in the beginner's section. This will allow you to stock more fish at once when the cycle is over. It doesn't involve risking the health and lives of fish and except for the rare exceptions, you don't need to do any water change during that period. This may take 4-8 weeks.

 

[TallTree01]

How long do you think it will take for the tank to be fully cycled?

 
Well, first of all it will never be fully cycled because it will only grow bacteria to support 5 x-ray tetras. So in reality, after this stage is finished, you'd need to be really careful with future stocking and you should add just a small percentage of the bio load already in at one time every couple of weeks, which would be like half a tetra at a time..... if that's possible doing 
 
Also, a fish in cycle will take ages, maybe 3 months depending because you need to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels to below 0.25ppm, 0 preferably via daily large water changes. Otherwise your fish will die.
 
I'd suggest you return these fish and do a fishless ammonia cycle instead. You can find instructions in the beginner's section. This will allow you to stock more fish at once when the cycle is over. It doesn't involve risking the health and lives of fish and except for the rare exceptions, you don't need to do any water change during that period. This may take 4-8 weeks.

+1

 

[ech0o]

 

How long do you think it will take for the tank to be fully cycled?
 

 
Well, first of all it will never be fully cycled because it will only grow bacteria to support 5 x-ray tetras. So in reality, after this stage is finished, you'd need to be really careful with future stocking and you should add just a small percentage of the bio load already in at one time every couple of weeks, which would be like half a tetra at a time..... if that's possible doing 

 
Also, a fish in cycle will take ages, maybe 3 months depending because you need to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels to below 0.25ppm, 0 preferably via daily large water changes. Otherwise your fish will die.
 
I'd suggest you return these fish and do a fishless ammonia cycle instead. You can find instructions in the beginner's section. This will allow you to stock more fish at once when the cycle is over. It doesn't involve risking the health and lives of fish and except for the rare exceptions, you don't need to do any water change during that period. This may take 4-8 weeks.
 

 
3 months may be a bit of a long shot, but it would indeed require careful and regular testing, and daily water changes to keep your levels within safe number for the fish to survive.  If you are going to keep the fish anyways though, I guess it wouldn't hurt to pass along the advice of at least using Seachem Prime to slightly detoxify the ammonia/nitrites, as well as Seachem Stability (which is still argued about its effectiveness but I have had great person experience) to more quickly establish a good bacterial colony.
 
+1 on just about everything else, your tank will be cycled for the amount of fish currently in the tank, each time you add another fish you may end up with an ammonia/nitrite spike or mini-cycle, and will need to do so slowly to let the bacteria colonize to catch up to the new load.

 

[Sickbound]

 

 

How long do you think it will take for the tank to be fully cycled?
 

 
Well, first of all it will never be fully cycled because it will only grow bacteria to support 5 x-ray tetras. So in reality, after this stage is finished, you'd need to be really careful with future stocking and you should add just a small percentage of the bio load already in at one time every couple of weeks, which would be like half a tetra at a time..... if that's possible doing 

 
Also, a fish in cycle will take ages, maybe 3 months depending because you need to keep the ammonia/nitrite levels to below 0.25ppm, 0 preferably via daily large water changes. Otherwise your fish will die.
 
I'd suggest you return these fish and do a fishless ammonia cycle instead. You can find instructions in the beginner's section. This will allow you to stock more fish at once when the cycle is over. It doesn't involve risking the health and lives of fish and except for the rare exceptions, you don't need to do any water change during that period. This may take 4-8 weeks.
 

 
3 months may be a bit of a long shot, but it would indeed require careful and regular testing, and daily water changes to keep your levels within safe number for the fish to survive.  If you are going to keep the fish anyways though, I guess it wouldn't hurt to pass along the advice of at least using Seachem Prime to slightly detoxify the ammonia/nitrites, as well as Seachem Stability (which is still argued about its effectiveness but I have had great person experience) to more quickly establish a good bacterial colony.
 
+1 on just about everything else, your tank will be cycled for the amount of fish currently in the tank, each time you add another fish you may end up with an ammonia/nitrite spike or mini-cycle, and will need to do so slowly to let the bacteria colonize to catch up to the new load.
 


So would it be okay to have them in the 72 gallon for a couple weeks until I get the 30 gallon and then start using the fish-less cycle method?

 

[Noahsfish]

He said he seeded it with substrate and decor, the tetras will definetly be fine. Plus if you're doing water changes daily no problem for them...maybe I'm lucky, but out of the 5 aquariums I've cycled I've had fish in and each took no longer than a month, and I didn't lose a fish. You will have to be careful though, the tetras have such a small bio load compared to the other fish you stated.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

If you have a tank you seeded the substrate etc. in, would you be able to get some filter media from it? You can safely take 1/4-1/3 of it. This will help your cycle A LOT and make it a lot less shorter.

 

[Sickbound]

If you have a tank you seeded the substrate etc. in, would you be able to get some filter media from it? You can safely take 1/4-1/3 of it. This will help your cycle A LOT and make it a lot less shorter.

I don't think I understand what you're saying. Are you asking if I can take my filter media in my already cycled tank and put it into the 72 gallon?

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Yeah, pretty much. You can take about 1/4 of the media and that will speed up your cycle quite a lot.

 

[ech0o]

Yeah, pretty much. You can take about 1/4 of the media and that will speed up your cycle quite a lot.

 Not only would this speed the process up, this is going to be the difference of the tank cycling for a month, and the tank cycling for probably less than a week with the seeded media.  Sorry didn't see you had bacterial media to transfer over, a few tetras in 75 gallons with seeded filter media should be more than ok, there would even be room for adding more very soon.
 
Blondie quick question, when dealing with transfering the media, I have an internal filter I have been running as addition to my main pump in the tank, and it has quite a good bacterial slime on the filter sponge at this point.  When you transfer a part of the filter do you just take a clipping from it?  Id like to upgrade all of the filter media inside that filter as the sponge is way to coarse, just trying to find the best way to transfer all the bacteria to the new media in the same filter.

 

[Noahsfish]

So you're basically replacing old media, but you want the new media to have the same bacteria as the old media? What material is the new media, and could you fit both the old and new temporarily? Scraping some of the "slime" off and putting it in the new media would help. What size tank is it, and how many/what type of fish? If it's a lightly stocked tank just thoroughly getting as much visible stuff transferred from the old to the new would be fine, as your gravel and decor holds a ton of your bacteria. Or you could stuff the new media in with the old and after a month or so remove the old.
Also to the OP, could you please list the stocking and size of tank that the gravel and media is coming from?? If the tank is heavily stocked with fish that produce lots of waste you could add all the fish you want at once, well maybe not all at once but you get the idea.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

 
Blondie quick question, when dealing with transfering the media, I have an internal filter I have been running as addition to my main pump in the tank, and it has quite a good bacterial slime on the filter sponge at this point.  When you transfer a part of the filter do you just take a clipping from it?  Id like to upgrade all of the filter media inside that filter as the sponge is way to coarse, just trying to find the best way to transfer all the bacteria to the new media in the same filter.
 

 
What you could do is....take out about 1/4 of the old media and replace it with the new media, you could do this about every three weeks (to be safe, just make sure to continue monitoring the levels) until all of the filter is filled with the new media. 
You can cut the media, just be safe and try not to be too rough with the remaining media (that you are going to put back into your  filter) and make sure that it doesn't dry out.