Cycling In A Bucket

[henryfg]

Hi

I have the filter for my new tank,but the tank itself is still at my parents place and will not be at my house for a month or so at least. Could I cycle the filter in a bucket of water (which is much smaller in volume that the tank will be) if I make sure the ammonia ppm is as it would be in any other cycle, and then when the tank arrives carry on the cycling process in the tank, or even if the filter is ready just put it straight in?

If this is possible, and the filter is cycled before the tank turns up, would I have to continye to add ammonia to feed the bacteria till the fish can do it?

 

[Bridie]

why not, sound ok. I have never done a fishless cycle myself though. You will need a heater, otherwise the cycle would take very long I presume. The advantage of doing the cycle in the tank is probably that the bacteria also grow in the gravel, but for the bacteria in the filter it should not make any difference. Maybe somebody on the forum tried it before? Good luck with your cycle!

 

[tom130691]

agree with above heater for best results the bacteria grows best at 28C iirc

 

[Curiosity101]

The cycle will be exactly the same, but it wont be cycled to hold as many fish as it would in a tank. It'll be cycled to hold the amount of fish you'd put in that sized bucket.
So even if you fully cycled in the bucket you'd want to carry on cycling in the tank (presuming the tank is larger than the bucker).
It'd only take a few days or so to top up the bacteria once the tank arrives but definitely do it.

And if you can use a heater then do.

 

[chrisbassist]

and yes, they could be fed on the ammonia until you get the tank.

one way of getting it cycled for more fish, would be to keep going until the standard cycle would be considered done (ammonia and nitrite both being processed from 5ppm in 12 hours) then start adding ammonia more often to give a little more food, so, topping up to 5ppm every 8 hours. in theory that should work, but you may be better off to start the cycle where you are in the bucket, and then continue the ccle in the tank, if the cycle in the bucket finishes before you get the tank, then it shouldn't take much longer to bring up the bacteria to a fully stocked tank once you get everything in there...

 

[OldMan47]

Your idea seems sound to me. You could very well develop a nice mature filter for a small population in that bucket setup and then bring it the rest of the way fairly quickly when you mount it on the tank. Since the bacteria we are dealing with can double about once a day, the move from a 5 gallon bucket to a to an 80 gallon tank could theoretically be made in less than a week by a mature filter. Anything short of a mature filter should still only take less than a week to get back to the same stage it was in when on the bucket. That means you will have gained the better part of a month compared to waiting to start the cycle.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with the others, cycling in a container smaller than the target tank should still give you a head-start because a lot of what its all about is just getting those very tiny first numbers of bacterial cells up to more reasonable levels during the first part of cycling. Even though you will be cycling for a smaller bioload, the ramp-up later in the tank will go much faster.

Just don't be tempted to put higher doses of ammonia in or something like that, you still need to work with 5ppm etc. just as if you're cycling for the bucket volume or whatever container you're in at the moment.

WD