tank cycle

[hampton]

How long will it take my 55 gal tank to do a fishless cycle? Also how will I know when the cycle is over?

 

[breezer40]

cycling the tank could take anything from a month to 6 weeks and the only way to know if it is done is to test the water and get a constant 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate with a nitrate reading of less than 20.

 

[andrew]

fill it half way with tap water, treat it with aqua plus and add the water from previous tanks

or wait the 6 weeks

 

[hampton]

Thanks for the replies. I'll wait the long six weeks.

 

[andrew]

playing it safe good to hear....alot of people think of fish as ornaments but they are living creatures like you and me so waiting the 6 weeks is the smarter move unless you have previous tank water saved

 

[fatguppy]

AS someone who had not heard of fishless cycling before joing this site, please don't add fish before the tank is cycled! It is too hurtfull!!

WE learned the hard way and our tank is now cycling, but I can only reiterate what the others are saying - wait!

Test the water daily, do the partial water changes if ness and then know that when you put the fish in they are in the ideal environment!

Don't lose them like we did - it is horrible!

Good luck with the fishies

Jane xx

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

ur can speed up the process tho. its not a definate time period just until you get the readings correct as mentioned above. if you can get some gravel form another up and running tnak or some filter media this will speed it up by planting th tnak with soem of the bacteria already, you may eb able to get some frm a fish store or maybe from a friend or even off ebay, or the buy sell swap board on here

 

[wetwetwet]

While you're waiting you can get on with your aquascapeing/planting and researching the fish you want to keep - the fun bit

*moved from newbies*



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