Are fishless cycles supposed to take this long?
- Thread starter mPhish
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ImACoolguy
Aquarium Advice Addict
Seeding does not always mean that the tank will instantly cycle. I seeded my 75g in a Fishless cycle and it took it 3 more weeks to finish the cycle. A tank as small as 2.5g is tricky. Best thing you can do is keep watching the levels.
Caleb
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ScotJudd
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hi. A small tank usually comes with a small filter with a very small sponge. This can be hard to cycle and to keep the cycle going. If this is the case then you can increase your media surface area by inserting the filter into another larger sponge so that the tank water is drawn through both sponges. I do this for my small QT and it works a treat. Not very attractive unless you can hide it with plants, wood etc..
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ImACoolguy
Aquarium Advice Addict
I can't verify smaller filters but larger filters like I keep take around 3 weeks to be complete established.
Caleb
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threnjen
Aquarium Advice Addict
Do you have a testing kit, and can you test the pH and report results?
Have you done any water changes on the tank during cycling?
Have you done any water changes on the tank during cycling?
ImACoolguy
Aquarium Advice Addict
Using an established tank to cycle a filter rated at 50+ gallons took me 3 weeks.
Caleb
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I don't think you can seed with carbon. You are better off with the sponge and/or the ceramic/bio-max media.
dragon14
Aquarium Advice Addict
Our 10g took 3 weeks, luckily. It can take a while sometimes though.
We tried to cycle a 5g, and it didn't go so well. It is partially cycled. We thought we were so close so many times, but, when we dosed with ammonia again, it didnt test out in 24 hrs. We just gave up.
We have 2 5g tanks and they house a betta each. We change the water 90% once a week (leaving just enough water in for the betta to stay in while we add the fresh water). When we check the ammonia at the end of the week, it's perfect, or once in a while, a tinge of green, but not enough to be .25 ppm.
Plus we make sure not to overfeed. They are fed daily, usually one break day a week.
My personal opinion is that tanks smaller than 10 may be quite difficult to cycle, esp 5g and below. We just keep tabs on the water quality and change water as necessary.
We tried to cycle a 5g, and it didn't go so well. It is partially cycled. We thought we were so close so many times, but, when we dosed with ammonia again, it didnt test out in 24 hrs. We just gave up.
We have 2 5g tanks and they house a betta each. We change the water 90% once a week (leaving just enough water in for the betta to stay in while we add the fresh water). When we check the ammonia at the end of the week, it's perfect, or once in a while, a tinge of green, but not enough to be .25 ppm.
Plus we make sure not to overfeed. They are fed daily, usually one break day a week.My personal opinion is that tanks smaller than 10 may be quite difficult to cycle, esp 5g and below. We just keep tabs on the water quality and change water as necessary.
Fishperson
Aquarium Advice Addict
Just to keep this myth from perpetuating, I'd like to point out that by seeding you need to use actual media and not tank water. The BB live on surfaces. Rock work and gravel also help.
dragon14
Aquarium Advice Addict
YES!! Water has very little bb in it, if any at all.
For our 20g tank, we just put the filters from our 10g when we upgraded into it, moved all our sand, decorations, 25% of the old water, and fish obviously, and bam, instant cycle! We tested it of course after about week or so, all perfect We got a new filter for our 20g tank a couple weeks ago, so we took the cartridges from the older filters and put them behind the new cartridges, and hopefully that will keep everything fine. I haven't tested the tank yet, going to soon. Hopefully the new cartridges are plenty seeded by the old ones by now. It's been a week and a half or two ish weeks now.
dragon14
Aquarium Advice Addict
Really? It seemed to work for us ok.
Finally found time to test. Here goes-
pH- 8.2 (My area has naturally high pH. The lady at the LPS said that it's best not to mess with it as the fish are already used to it in my 10gal, and I'm guessing they keep their fish in the same water as well.)
Ammonia- somewhere between 2-4 ppm, probably 3.
Nitrites- 0
It's been like 1 1/2 or 2 weeks since i've last tested and the results are exactly the same. I'm thinking I'm going to wait a couple weeks, and if nothing changes I'll do enough water changes to get the ammonia down, get my betta, and wing it with fish-in cycling.
pH- 8.2 (My area has naturally high pH. The lady at the LPS said that it's best not to mess with it as the fish are already used to it in my 10gal, and I'm guessing they keep their fish in the same water as well.)
Ammonia- somewhere between 2-4 ppm, probably 3.
Nitrites- 0
It's been like 1 1/2 or 2 weeks since i've last tested and the results are exactly the same. I'm thinking I'm going to wait a couple weeks, and if nothing changes I'll do enough water changes to get the ammonia down, get my betta, and wing it with fish-in cycling.
sinibotia
Aquarium Advice Addict
Actually, there's some research out there that suggests that activated carbon stops removing things within a few days of putting it in the filter, at which point it just becomes yet another surface for beneficial bacteria. That's why I don't think twice about using undergravel or sponge filters- chemical filtration is a farce anyway.
So yeah, carbon is a fine way to seed a tank
sinibotia
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm starting to wonder if you have an issue in your water itself that may be inhibiting the bacteria.
