Cycling Jumpstart?

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

So I am starting a new tank, 55 gallons, and want to cycle as quickly as possible. I have been reading a lot about fishless cycling, biospira, etc., and it seems that one of the key things is to get a sufficient quantity of the bacteria established. Getting some media from an existing aquarium seems to help, but I don't have a trusted supplier (although I need to check out the donations thread). And biospira seems to be a possible solution, but it also seems to rely on fully stocking the aquarium from the beginning and I am not ready to do that. So I was wondering, I have this in my backyard:

I was wondering if I could grab, say a gallon, of water from the pond and put that into my tanke to do an initial seeding of the bacteria, then follow the fishless cycling directions? The pond is certainly "cycled" and I would think that it would really kick start my aquarium.

Any thoughts? Anybody done this? Any potential drawbacks?

 

[Squid]

Not sure about the pond water bit. I have no experience with doing that, but i would always be worried what else i was putting in my tank with the pond water. You also have to consider that most of the bacteria in a tank of pond is not found in the water, so that would limit its effectiveness (in a tank its in the filter mainly). Also, it depends on the stocking levels in the pond as to just how much of a bio-load it supports within a vast amount of water.

With regards to bio-spira, you could always do a fishless cycle with this in the tank from the beginning. As long as you are providing the ammonia into it you will be able to see if the bio-spira stuff works well and speeds up the cycle.

Most people are fairly dubious about the bacteria seeding products, but bio-spira if any seems to have a better reputation. I haven't seen it in the UK.. The closest I have seen is something called bactinettes, however, even with this product there is still a mini-spike of nitrites after a number of days.. This of course is never good.

Finally.. as you probably remember, a cycled tank is not neccessarily a mature tank. This unfortunately does take time and is a natural process that takes place in your tank. So go easy on the not so hardy fish for the first 6 months.

Hope that helps
Squid

 

[DarkEntity]

Adding water from a river/pond to a Tropical tank is a no no imo. You have no idea what toxins/chemicals/cars/tyres/dead neds have got into it. If you want a tank up faster than normal then seeded filter material is the safest method and imo the best method.

 

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Thanks, that is kind of what I figured, although I never thought about dead Neds in the pond! Have to check with my neighbors and see if they have thrown any in! LOL.

And I now that cycling and maturing are different. Since this is primarily for my kids (yeah, then why did you buy a 55 gal tank and start reading fish boards?) we will keep to hardier fish anyway.

 

[xoedusk]

And biospira seems to be a possible solution, but it also seems to rely on fully stocking the aquarium from the beginning and I am not ready to do that.

How about this...

Get some ammonia and Bio-Spira. Attempt to cycle the tank as you normally would for a fishless cycle. Except don't wait until it's fully cycled. Since you aren't wanting to fully stock right away, you don't need all of the bacteria you normally would. Of course, I have no idea how you'd know if you had "enough" bacteria.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Quickest way to get a cycled tank is to get mature filter media and sponge from an established tank into your filter alongside your new stuff. Then cycle the tank using the add and wait method in this thread with ammonia solution.