Question About Fish Cycling

[RoyalFish]

Hey fish people, I would like to know a question on fish cycle.

I have bought a fish tank off gumtree , 260L which had been running a community fish tank, I did not want the fish so the women took all the fish out for me to pick it up. I did ask for her to not clean filter. By time I picked up the fish tank the filter had been unplugged for a week,

My question is will my bacteria still be a live and how long will the fish cycle take?


I have already started off the fishless water cycle by adding pure ammonia which I thought that you should know that information.

Note: I have been running my fish tank for two days and have water tested here are my results-

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Ammonia 1.0
Ph 7.4

I have also tested my tap water and it's 10 nitrate, hope you can help me.

Thanks

 

[fluttermoth]

There's no way of knowing, for sure, whether any bacteria have survived, but it's quite possible; your nitrate is higher than in the tap water, so that's a good sign.

Do you know what PPM of ammonia you had at the start?

There's every chance your cycle will go pretty fast, but all set ups vary a little, so it's not possible to give an absolute time frame.

 

[Gruntle]

Was the media in the filter still damp? If so you may have a quick turnaround on your cycle.
 
The beauty of it is, with a fishless cycle you have the time to cycle properly without having to worry about whether your fish are staying healthy. There is no way to tell how long, but read the cycling article, post your results here and we'll be happy to help in any way we can.