Cycling When We're Away

[Miles_hot]

Our new tank is about to turn up however we are due to be away for 5 days. I was thinking about starting the cycle and then ignoring it for 5 days as we will not be there. It appears that for a normal cycle this would not be an issue however I do have a kind offer of some mature media. Is there a danger that the MM will then cause the cycle to be very short and hence the bateria will stave as they've processed the 5ppm ammonia away and die?

Editted to add: we are also thinking abuot doing the cycle without any sand etc in place (bare tank) as we have not had time to chose fish etc yet and I understand that this can impact on the sand vs gravel decision. I'm not expecting this to cause any issue however I'd appreciate any comments.

Many thanks

Miles

 

[Skins]

Hello,
You could dose with h/h ammonia(5ppm) the morning you leave because on average it takes 7 days for the ammonia bacterias(A-bacs)to start processing. When you come back from your 5 day break then add the mature media.

Keith.

 

[Miles_hot]

I thought about that Skins but then I thought that all I'm doing is thowing away the bateria which have grown on the media to be swapped. Mind you as I type that I see that what I would actually be doing is giving them to the kind person who is giving me media which will slightly (however marginally) reduce the shock to their system.

Good idea...assuming I wouldn't be better off with the cycle starting with the seeded media of course A week is a long time

Miles

 

[Skins]

The way i was looking at it Miles was if you introduced the mature media and dosed h/h ammonia before your 5 day break there was a good chance the dosage would be processed pretty quick, leaving the bacterias with no source of food for ex-ammount of days.

Keith.

 

[Miles_hot]

I see Keith - that was what I was worried about but I wasn't sure if it was that much of a probability. Ah well, it would be a very nice problem to have!

Miles