New Setup Working For 5 Hours

[andyt_uk]

cycling a tank doesnt take your time
the only 'time' is in the delay before you can safely add fish
if you cant get ammonia get some fish food, you can get that cant you?

add some of that, be quite generous - might take longer but you'll get there


if you are really short on time you could always pee in the tank... no.. maybe that was a joke - although there is some science there, you risk adding more than you want....

 

[zoekin8yg]

if you 'dont have the time' your fish will die which is very cruel. If you dont want to do it properly dont do it at all

 

[kev350d]

i dont have much time and dont have ammonia

Seriously im cycling with fish in a 350 litre aquarium and doing partial water changes and tests every day to ensure the welfare of the fish, i work and have 2 children a cat and a dog and honestly i find it very easy to make time for the fish. It takes me anywhere from 15mins to 1hr per day and i guess this time will drop as my tank matures. So its very easy to take care of your tank as long as you dont see it being a strain or a chore.

I reckon a couple replies were quite harsh as you stated that you didnt have much time and NOT no time, I think if you intend to do a fish cycle (it was the way and still is the way thousands do it) and people arnt being cruel or care less than people who do in my oppinion as long as the people who chose to use fish ensure they take the little time and monitor their conditions and be preparred to carry out extra maintenance.
I chose to do a fishless cycle but an accident with a family members tank meant i had to stock mine with a half dozen fish, I certainly dont feel that im being cruel but others may well differ.

 

[DarkEntity]

i dont have much time and dont have ammonia

You NEED to cycle the tank to introduce bacteria in the water so the fish dont all die from poor water quality etc.
and you NEED to spend time getting the tank setup and once done more time to maintain it. If you dont have time you shouldnt keep tropical fish.

Make you decision now before introducing fish on if you have the time to do it!

 

[mark.w.jones]

I must admit that doing a fishless cycle from scratch with no media from an established tank is time consuming and requires time and dedication. You cant get away from that Im afraid. The only shortcut is to get hold of mature ceramic media and sponge if you can, this will speed things up no end. Once youve got your tank set up though, fish keeping is probably one of the pet hobbies that requires less attention than any other. I only spend 20 minutes a week on tank maintainance, its only a 10 gal mind, and the rest of the time admiring my great little tank. (Im biased of course)

ps you can cycle with fish but few people on this site will be happy that you do. And to be honest, cycling with fish is probably more time consuming and more open to set backs and problems than cycling without fish

 

[PaPeRo]

I'm surprised nobody has recommended using packaged bacteria like BioSpira and CYCLE. That will cycle your tank very fast. The former is harder to find and very expensive but it cycles the tank faster than the latter. For your setup just buy a bottle of CYCLE it's prettty cheap. You should also test for ammonia and nitrite levels every 2 days during this period.

 

[dwarfgourami]

The reason BioSpira has not been mentioned before is probably because most posters have been from uk, where it is not on sale. What should have been mentioned is that we have a list of members willing to donate mature media- pinned thread.

 

[Callum]

nutrafin cycle wouldnt speed up the cycle that much, howver bio spira would. But mature media is a great way to speed it up.