How Long For A Fish In Cycle

[pongo]

Hello again peeps.
Quick question, Done what most people did that are new to the hobby set up tank and put fish in after a few days. Now doing a fish in cycle and was wondering how long it roughly takes to be completed. Doing 20% water change everyday for past 10 days, 26L tank, adding tetra safe start and nutra cycle after water changes and feeding fish a little, once every other day. Having water  tested at LFS and results are alot of ammonia. Any advice to speed up the process would be greatfully recieved. Could i get a frind with a mature tank to give me a little of his water after he has cleaned the filter in it. Would this help. So much different advice everywhere, you tube, on here etc. Thanks again

 

[fluttermoth]

If your friend could give you a piece of actual media, that would be for the best (the bacteria cling on, quite strongly, to the media, so not many come off in the water in a filter clean).
 
It would be best if you got your own test kits, for ammonia and nitrite at the very least, as you should be testing every day to keep the ammonia at a low level. Depending on how high the ammonia actually is, you might need to be doing more than 20% daily.

 

[Arcticfox1977]

Get yourself the api master test kit. This saves you a lot of trips to your LFS. If ammonia shows 0.25 do a 50% WC. I did a fish in cycle with no fish deaths. You are trying to keep the ammonia and nitrIte levels 0.It took me 4 months to be fully cycled. You know when you are cycled when you haven't had any ammonia for a full week.
How many fish have you got in just now?
Also the advice of getting some old media for your filter or some gravel in a mature tank will speed things up.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Actual filter media as fluttermoth mentions, in the from of sponge or ceramic media would be the very best thing you can use, tank water has very little value in terms of bacteria. 
 
This will help greatly in establishing a bacteria colony in your filter quicker to deal with the fish waste of ammonia and nitrites.
 
NOTE - Do not to take any more than a third of your friend's filter media otherwise you may cause a mini cycle or ammonia/nitrite spikes on your friend's tank.
 
As already mentioned in the above two posts, try and get yourself a freshwater test kit, API brand is fairly decent. heres a link to give you the idea of which API test kit would be suitable 
 
http/www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/api-freshwater-master-test-kit
 
Do try to keep your ammonia and nitrite levels to as near to zero as you can by regular and frequent water changes while your tank is cycling, try not to let levels get over 0.50ppm for any length of time as this can make the fish suffer from ammonia burns and could potentially damage internal organs. Not pleasant for the fish.
 
Do let us know how you get on and if you managed to get some media from your friend. Good luck.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well that depends on what you mean by completing a fish in cycle. But lets start with the fact that most experienced fish keepers these days do no really know the proper way to cdo a fish in cycle, you will see a lot of what I consider to be be bad answers. So I will give you two answers to you question and do so under the assumption that one does all parts of a fish in cycle properly.
 
There are two possible ways to answer your question. One is to answer how long it takes to complete all the stages of a multi-stage cycling process to end up with a fully stocked and completely cycled tank. This should take between 12 and 15 weeks. The other answer is how long does it take to complete the initial stage of the process which should take about 35-42 days. These times are on average and may go faster or longer.
 
The best way I know to explain a fish in cycle done properly isthat it is a dance between allowing ammonia and nitrite levels to rise as much as possible for the cycle and not allowing those levels to get high enough to do any permanent damage to the fish. What it takes to perform this dance is a lot more complicated than what it takes to cycle without fish. One thing that is needed to maximize the speed and to avoid the unneeded stress to fish from lots of very frequent water changes, is to minimize their frequency and amount. In a fishless cycle the only concern is what will get the tank fully cycled to handle a full fish load the fastest. What the bacteria need for this is not so safe for fish. And this is the big difference between the two forms of cycling. Fishless gets you ready to stock fully in the same or less time than just the initial stage that fish in cycling can. Plus no fish can get hurt or killed if one makes a mistake.
 
That means one needs to be able to test not just for total ammonia but to know how much of it is in the toxic NH3 form vs the nowhere near as harmful NH4 form. (have a read at the SeaChem site http/www.seachem.com/Library/SeaGrams/Ammonia_Management.pdf ) One needs to have the proper number of the right species of fish since some are way more ammonia tolerant than others. of course one also needs to start with healthy stock since going through a cycle is stressful to fish, even when done right.Weak fish are less likely to survive.
 
My advice to you is, rather than try to do a fish in cycle, return the fish to the store for credit so you can come get them back and then complete the cycle as a fishless. Or ask a friend who keeps fish to hold them for you if possible. The other choice is to add enough bacteria to the tank to get it cycled or very close to. You can do this with media, substrate or decor from cycled tanks and/or bottled bacteria such as Dr. Tim's One and Only or Safe Start from Tetra. Be sure to follow the directions for these bottled products to the letter. Both have sites with more information.