How Long Does A Fishless Cycle Take?

[TekFish]

I've had answers ranging from 2 weeks to 3 months and I'd like to put and end to this madness

 

[Tolak]

That is the answer, each situation varies. If you start with enough donated media from a mature tank it will be instant. With a newer water supply & distribution system with little ambient bacteria present & no donor media it could take months.

 

[TenaciousG_]

If you use pure ammonia to do it, it can take weeks donated media will help it along loads but I did mine with API stress zyme Worked fine, left it for a week and then added some neons. Kept building and its fine

 

[Man of fish]

Fishless cycles depend on other variables. Most say 4-6 weeks with theirs if there's no donor media and they dose the ammonia to 4 ppm daily until it and the occurring nitrite is processed to nitrate within 12 hours.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

The most common period, from my short time on the forum, seems to be 6 weeks.

 

[106576]

Im cycling a tank at the moment. It is a 60l (prob 54 with all the bits and pieces) and Im using 2.5 ml of household ammonia every 24 hours(except at the beginning when the level was high). It has taken exactly 3 weeks from the start for the nitrite to start to drop and 3 weeks 2 days for it to drop to 0.3 in 12 hours and zero in 24 hours. Im hoping it will zero in 12 hours in the next week. So hopefully the whole process will have taken 4 weeks.
Im a complete beginner so hope Ive done it right!.

Oh I did use some Cycle stuff at the beginning but I have no idea if that helped speed it up or not.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If one does the fishless cycle properly, then with no seeding from other tanks nor the addition of one of the few additives that does work, it should take you from 5-6 weeks. The use of seeding will reduce that time accordingly- that is the more bacteria you can start with, the faster the cycle goes. Given sufficient starter amounts, a tank can be instantly cycled.

What will greatly extend this time is if you dose ammonia according to what most people would suggest- that is 4 - 5 ppm. It will take longer if you are dosing ammonia daily. If ammonia levels are allowed to reach these dosing levels daily, the nitrite spike will be horrid amd will also extend or stall the cycle.

I suggest you dose 2-3 ppm of ammonia and only redose when ammonia has dropped to 0. Once you have seen nitrites appear, then spike and finally drop to 0, you should be able to dose 2-3 ppm of ammonia and then test 0 ammonia and O nitrites in under 24 hours. Nitrate will usually rise as a result (save in well planted tanks) and this indicates your tank is cycled and ready for fish.

In general fishless cycling will proceed fastest when the tank pH is in the 8.2 range and the temp is in the mid 80s. The closer one gets to under pH 7.0, the slower things may go and if you drop below 6.5, it will usually stall completely.

In order to get the best results, use water changes to get ammonia or nitrite levels below 5ppm should they reach that level and to hold the pH at 7 or above should it drop below.

 

[Bugdozer]

The closer one gets to under pH 7.0, the slower things may go and if you drop below 6.5, it will usually stall completely.

Can you explain how people manage to keep fish that require a pH of lower than 6.5, then? (e.g. discus or chocolate gourami)

 

[Man of fish]

It will stall a cycle, but once it's cycled it won't unicycle by being below that ph.

 

[PERCY]

I gave up on the fish less cycle as there were no changes in mine. Doing a fish in cycle now with a pair of kribs. Changing the water constantly is a pain however I've a media donation coming soon thanks to a helpful forum member. Hopefully that should get me up and running

 

[PERCY]

I gave up on the fish less cycle as there were no changes in mine. Doing a fish in cycle now with a pair of kribs. Changing the water constantly is a pain however I've a media donation coming soon thanks to a helpful forum member. Hopefully that should get me up and running

 

[pdludbrooke]

I've had answers ranging from 2 weeks to 3 months and I'd like to put and end to this madness

I am currently still cycling a 105 litre tank from scratch and that started way back April 17th, I'm currently dosing 2ppm Ammonia and it is still taking 18 hours to clear that and the nitrite produced, get some mature media if you can.

 

[dbanner]

I'd say around 4-6 weeks sounds about right if you dose with household ammonia. 2 months+ seems a bit on the extreme side lol mine took just under 5 weeks and my readings have been the same since

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20

 

[pdludbrooke]

I'd say around 4-6 weeks sounds about right if you dose with household ammonia. 2 months+ seems a bit on the extreme side lol mine took just under 5 weeks and my readings have been the same since

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20

This tank has been infested with snails from some live plants I put in there, could the snails waste be adding ammonia ??
I do clear all the little blighters out when I do a water change to clear out the nitrAtes.

Are you sure you didn't use any mature media of any sort with your tank that took 5 weeks
Having said that my tap water here is high in nitrAtes 37ppm from water company reports (40ppm by API test kit) could this effect the time it has taken to cycle this tank.
I mean, I think it is only fair to let new people trying the fishless cycle know exactly what they truly could be in to.

I cycled another tank using some mature media (the one below) and that took 3 weeks.

I also need to let you know I use internal filters on both these tanks Fluval U3 filters.

 

[pdludbrooke]

The closer one gets to under pH 7.0, the slower things may go and if you drop below 6.5, it will usually stall completely.

Can you explain how people manage to keep fish that require a pH of lower than 6.5, then? (e.g. discus or chocolate gourami)

I know someone who keeps discus and they use half tap water and half rain water, they use a dedicated water butt and filter the water out of that through his wifes old tights LOL