How Long Does A Fishless Cycle Take?

[pdludbrooke]

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.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you here, I am actually a bit annoyed at all the so called experts on here saying it only takes 4-6 weeks to cycle a tank from scratch, it CAN and has taken a lot longer and to the point that frustration can actually put people off.

I think it is only fair to let people know (especially newbies) what they could be in to, I done everything correctly to the letter except I dosed the lower ammonia 2ppm, my PH was 8.2 through out.

I got so annoyed after 5 weeks I got another tank and started that one with a mature media donation from my LFS and kept the other tank cycling as an experiment, the media donation helped to cycle this tanks filter in 3 weeks.

 

[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

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.

I used a little mature media after the 1st week given to me by my lfs.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

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)

Yes- it will take about 4-6 months (perhaps longer) to get a tank cycled for acid water fish. First you fully cycle the tank for a neutral pH. then you drop the pH in .2 increments taking 2-4 weeks for each drop. Not all the bacteria are stalled or killed. So each time you drop the pH, you dose ammonia again and that portion of the bacteria still functioning at the lower pH level will reproduce. When the tank stabalizes at each pH level you repeat this until you are at the desired pH. The other thing to realize is that in acid pH the ammonia is almost completely in the form of NH4 (ammonium). And chocolate gouramis are like altum angels, most fish keepers can not keep them alive. Only the more experienced and dedicated folks normally even try.

And pdludbrooke you get as annoyed as you like, it doesn't change the facts. I have no clue what you did during your cycling so I have no idea why you failed to get it done in the 5-6 week time frame. I have only done a fishless cycle on just over 50 tanks so far. I have done them from scratch with no seeding and I have done them instantly with a lot of seeding. While it is not unheard of for a cycle to take longer, this should not be the norm.

 

[Electric Warrior]

HI everyone. I thought I would just pose this question in this thread since there are already 782 other cycling threads I am going to start a fishless cycle on a new 200l tank I have just set up. I am planning on using the add and wait method. I am going on holiday though in 10 days. I will be gone for a total of 10 days also. Can I start my cycle now even though I will be away for 10 days and doe the tank with fish food before I go? Some people have said that I could do this, but I want to make sure, and if I can start the cycle now, what exactly do I have to do when I get back? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

If you dosed the tank with enough ammonia to get it up to 5ppm (which is a little on the high side) it'll probably be fine for the 10 days that you're gone. I don't personally believe in using the fish food method because it takes a while for the fish food to break down enough to release a decent amount of ammonia and you also don't know how much or how fast the ammonia is being released.

 

[Electric Warrior]

If you dosed the tank with enough ammonia to get it up to 5ppm (which is a little on the high side) it'll probably be fine for the 10 days that you're gone. I don't personally believe in using the fish food method because it takes a while for the fish food to break down enough to release a decent amount of ammonia and you also don't know how much or how fast the ammonia is being released.

Okay I got it. I have my temp up to about 29º right now. I that a good temp for a cycle, or too much?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Nope 29 isn't too high at all, I had mine at 30 when I cycled, a high temperature is a good thing for cycling your tank

 

[pdludbrooke]

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)

Yes- it will take about 4-6 months (perhaps longer) to get a tank cycled for acid water fish. First you fully cycle the tank for a neutral pH. then you drop the pH in .2 increments taking 2-4 weeks for each drop. Not all the bacteria are stalled or killed. So each time you drop the pH, you dose ammonia again and that portion of the bacteria still functioning at the lower pH level will reproduce. When the tank stabalizes at each pH level you repeat this until you are at the desired pH. The other thing to realize is that in acid pH the ammonia is almost completely in the form of NH4 (ammonium). And chocolate gouramis are like altum angels, most fish keepers can not keep them alive. Only the more experienced and dedicated folks normally even try.

And pdludbrooke you get as annoyed as you like, it doesn't change the facts. I have no clue what you did during your cycling so I have no idea why you failed to get it done in the 5-6 week time frame. I have only done a fishless cycle on just over 50 tanks so far. I have done them from scratch with no seeding and I have done them instantly with a lot of seeding. While it is not unheard of for a cycle to take longer, this should not be the norm.

I was saying that it was annoying expecting my filter to have cycled in the 4-6 weeks I was told it would take. I am saying that new people trying to set up an aquarium the correct way by cycling the filter before adding any fish and being told it will take 4-6 weeks and then it taking longer causes them maybe to feel a bit ds-heartened, I mean it's bad enough saying to them you will have to wait 4-6 weeks (that seems like an eternity when you bought the tank done your scaping etc) when indeed it can take a lot longer, that's all I was saying, I advised the OP to get some mature media if they can, I would advise anyone to do that now.
I think maybe you are more knowledgeable in doing the fishless cycling, maybe there are things you do because of your greater experience in the process of doing a fishless cycle that a newbie like myself would have over looked I don't know, all I can do is give my experience of it.

 

[4seasons]

it takes a while for the fish food to break down enough to release a decent amount of ammonia and you also don't know how much or how fast the ammonia is being released.

Because of the time it takes food to break down is why I would suggest it to use if you have to leave for a week or so. In my experience it takes 2 days to start breaking down and 5-7 to stop releasing ammonia. I like to think of it as a time release capsule. You are right that there is no way to know how much ammonia you are adding using fish food but if you only goal is to keep the bacteria from starving while you are gone for a week the amount really doesn't matter much. You can always do a large water change when you get back if your nitrite levels get too high.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

but if you use ammonia you know exactly how much you bacteria has processed and in what period of time