cycling a tank

[bigben2057]

I have a full cycled 20 gallon tank and now am upgrading to a 30 gallon. I placed one of the two filter cartidges from my old tank into the new filter. The filter both have bio wheels also. What can i do to cycle it faster and how long will it take?

 

[herp_mommy]

You have to add a source of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive in the new tank. Add some table shrimp (the kind people eat) to the tank. let them rot and break down, since you already have some bacteria in there, it should only take about 3 or 4 weeks before your bacteria colonies build up. Continue to test your water and see where your levels are.

 

[fort384]

If you have seeded it from a mature tank, you might barely see a cycle at all. It might be ready much sooner than 3-4 weeks.

 

[bigben2057]

Yeah thats what i was thinking i went and bought a nirate test kit and i tested 4 times and got zero and its only been running two days. IS it ready for fish?

 

[fort384]

0 nitrates does not indicate the tank is cycled. You need to test for ammonia and nitrites, roughly 24 hours after adding a source of ammonia... some fish food flakes, or a cocktail shrimp would release ammonia about 24 hours after putting them in the tank... or you could dose some pure ammonia (without surfactants) and check for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate 24 hours after dosing.

 

[bigben2057]

OK so i put 2 shrimp in is that enough? So when i test for nitrate tomorrow and if its still zero what dose that mean?

 

[fort384]

Testing for nitrate tomorrow might not tell you anything. You need to be testing for ammonia and nitrite.

2 shrimp will be enough to produce some ammonia... it will take 24 hours or so for it to start breaking down enough to produce ammonia however.

 

[bigben2057]

OK guess im going to have to get an ammonia kit tomorrow then. Thanks for the help.

 

[fort384]

No prob. What you want to see is after 24 hours of the shrimp being in there, some detectable ammonia... if none, check nitrites, if none, check nitrates. You should get a reading on 1 of the 3... but you need to verify that your tank has 0 ammonia and nitrites before you can verify it is cycled.

 

[bigben2057]

Zero ammonia and nitrite and had them test it at PETCO.

 

[AquaRick]

You really should get your own liquid test kit. It'll come in handy. Petco tends to use the tester strips which imo\ime aren't too good.

 

[bigben2057]

I tested it with both and zero I have a liquid one to