For a number of years I would set up summer tanks outside on a screened in terrace. I also used to sell fish at weekend events to which I brought glass tanks and cycled filter. I stopped cycling individual tanks year ago because of this and use o set up a bio-farm for cycling the filters. My goals was to get a number of assorted Poret cubefilters cycled so that I could fully stock a tank once the filters were ready.
This is a completely different process than cycling a single tank. For one I could complete the cycling in anywhere from 10 to 14 days. Usually as many as 8 assorted size tanks were involved and about 220 gallons was the ultimate capacity when they were all set up and fully stocked.
By the end of the process I was adding almost 25 ppm pf ammonia per day to the bioo-farm. This had to be done in several smaller doses throughout the day. It also required keeping a couple of bags of crushed coral ion the tanks and doing big water changes every two days during the final 5 or so day.
To manage things so the worked well I used an API ammonia kits regularly (sometimes 2 -3 times/day) and a digital TDS meter. This was how I knew if there was sufficient coral in the tank. I usually started with one bag but had to add a second about 1/2-2/3 of the way through. Because I started up the tanks over a number of days I had to keep the filters still in the bio-farm fully cycled which meant adjusting the ammonia additions accordingly.
Before I started using a bio-farm for cycling filters I was ramping up my tanks. Often this also involved increasing the size of tank. So when I would break down an existing tanks but was not ready to set up a new one until some time later, I would put any cycled filters being replaced into a holding tank where I added ammonia ever few days to hold keep the filters well cycled. The microorganisms involved in the cycled filters do not need ammonia daily. but is too many days are missed they will go into a state of dormancy. However, the will quickly wake up and be a full strength very fast. But the ammonia dosing does change as filters are added or put back into use.
It makes little sense to cycle filters for profit. It does make sense to culture and sell the microorganisms. I was not doing what I did for profit but for my own needs.
This holding system helped me to learn about using a bio-farm. Also, I read an article by Dr. Timothy Hovanec about he created what was being put in his One and Only Nitrifying bacteria. There is a difference the methods used between culturing the microorganism v.s. cycling filters. In the product one has to provide tiny solids for the biofilm they make to attach to a solid surface. But in my farm for filters that was the filters. If you add One and Only to a tank after shaking the bottle a git when your pour it into the water you initially see a white cloud which quickly dissipates. That cloud are the tiny particles to which the microorganisms are attached.
One note here. In order to get the fi;ters cycles so fast I seeded a combination if Dr. Tims One and Only and by squeezing out a number of the foam media from a number of my established filers. To dsave money I would buy the smallest bottle Dr. Hovanec sold which was good for 30 gallon even though I was cycling for 220 gallons in 8 different tanks. These ranged i size from a 10, 3 x 20L, a 29, 2 x 40B and a 50. the 4 smaller tanks got single cubefilters of differen sizes (3x3x3 inch), the rest got 2 filters which were some combination of 4x4x4 and 5x5x inches. They all were powered by a single DAPMH 20 Diaphragm Air Pump, 22 watts (12 to 20 outlets).
https://jehmco.com/html/diaphragm_air_pumps.html#DAPMH8-15
Who sells cycled filters for aquariums?
When I Googled this, I got back three places. None included the site I knew did this for many years. They may have stopped doing this , been bought out or closed. However. one did not indicate for how mamy gallons their filters could be used so, I coreesed them of the list. The second site said they were out of stock so that Xed them. The third site offered filters for 10, 20 or 50 gallon tanks, They also sell starter bacteria, but this cannot contain the needed Nortrospira bacteria which are patented by Dr. Hovanec and Tetra becuase they are part of the outfit for who Dr. Hovanec worked before it ws purchased and he started his own business. However, if one does a normal cycle, these will colonize naturally.
