Another site I was just on, a user swears that by wringing out a filter pad, not just using a existing one in a new filter, a tank can cycle within 24 hrs. Does this method work? Has anyone ever heard of this method? Curious what ur thoughts are.
Instant Cycle, Can This Be Done?
- Thread starter mohican
- Start date
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obedey
Aquarium Advice Activist
I very much doubt it.
Convict2161
Aquarium Advice Addict
mohican said:
Never heard of this. You can add a filter pad or media from a well established tank and drop it into your filter and it help "seed" your new filters and yes... Speed up the cycle. Not instantly cycle your tank but speed it up greatly IMO.
I used media from a well established tank when doing my fish in cycle on one of my tanks and it helped out ALOT, I also added driftwood and rocks from the established tank so it was cycled pretty fast. All those items I added had BB growing on them.
Never heard of ringing out a filter though. You want whatever BB is on the media to have time to attach and grown onto your filters
Puengsac
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Yes, that's correct. I just had an instant cycle with over nite new tank. I bought a brand new tank with established sponge from the store and within over nite my cycle starts. No panic, the cloudiness will go away within a few hours after you put the Nutrafin cycle!!! 
Yes, that's correct. I just had an instant cycle with over nite new tank. I bought a brand new tank with established sponge from the store and within over nite my cycle starts. No panic, the cloudiness will go away within a few hours after you put the Nutrafin cycle!!!
Your cycle may start, correct, but is it complete? That is the question. I've had tanks for years and know that using an existing pad to help seed a new tank, but never completing the cycle. if this were true, wouldn't cycling be easy and quick? Wouldn't everyone being doing this? The part that confuses me is the wringing out part. How does that differ than just placing a seeded pad in an existing filter to run thru?
Convict2161
Aquarium Advice Addict
I question the fact that a tank is instantly cycled over night from ringing out a sponge into the tank or filter from a established tank.
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Squeezing an established sponge into a new tank wont 'instantly' cycle it but, yes, it does help, believe it or not. I have experimented with my qt doing this and it does work to some degree but 'instantly' cycling it, no. You have to keep in mind a few things here. To 'instantly' cycle a tank, you have to have to transfer cycled media in respect to the bioload a tank is going to carry-its all relative. If you moved all of the media from a cycled, heavily stocked 55g cichlid tank to a 10g betta tank, the betta tank would be 'instantly' cycled. But, if you moved all of the media from a cycled 10g betta tank to a heavily stocked, uncycled 55g cichlid tank, it wouldnt make any difference. Make sense?
I have sort of done this myself. I upgraded tank sizes from a 20 to 75. I dumped the water from the 20 into the 75 mixed the rest of the water I used the gravel and rocks also plus new ones... how ever I used the old filter system running in tandem with my larger new filter for 2 weeks. I had my fish in there in 3 hours no problem. Not recommending u to do this I've just done it in the past and never had a problem.
Puengsac
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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mohican said:
You are correct! The cycle won't complete cause you will need to add another option of Nutrafin cycle after 2 days, then it's completed. Hope it helps!!
Lt.
Aquarium Advice FINatic
What does "BB" mean?
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
BB is 'beneficial bacteria' (your good bacteria that process ammonia & nitrite).
Lt.
Aquarium Advice FINatic
jlk said:BB is 'beneficial bacteria' (your good bacteria that process ammonia & nitrite).
I know what beneficial bactiria are, i just didnt know the acronym BB.
I did this from a 29 established to a 20 high. I took the white sponge from the Aquaclear. Took a bowl of tank water from established tank. I soaked the sponge in the bowl, then wrung it out a couple times in the bowl. You want the bowl water to look nasty. Then it was dumped in the new filter housing along with a nice piece of mature filter media. It sped it up to about a week. I also did the bowl trick twice in one week. I also added decor from the 29 to the 20 temporarily to get things juiced. A filter squeezing works well ALONG side a mature filter pad.
Oceangirl, you made a good point. You said it took about a week for things to level out which sounds believable having heavily seeded the tank. Having said that, and its been a while since I've had to cycle a tank, when will ammonia, trates, trites begin to rise on a seeded tank? I saw a video where the tank had 0 ammonia, low trates-trites and it was supposively set-up less than 24 hrs. Does this sound right or haven't the parameters yet to begin to cycle? (hope that sounds right)
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
This depends on a few factors such as how heavily a tank was seeded, the stocking and the numbers for the source water for a tank. If the source water has low nitrite and/or nitrate, then the cycle may not have started yet. If it was heavily seeded/low stocking with no nitrite/nitrate in the tap, then the cycle may already be underway but only time would tell if this is the case.
BBradbury
Aquarium Advice Addict
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Instant Tank Cycling
Hello mo...
You can instantly cycle a tank. Just run two filters in an established, larger tank for a couple of weeks and remove one of the filters and put it on the tank you want to cycle.
Instant good bacteria to handle the nitrogen in the new tank. I've done it a couple of times with no problems. Just make sure the filter media comes from a tank that's larger than the one you want to instantly cycle or there won't be enough of the microscopic bugs to process the nitrogen in the new tank.
B
Hello mo...
You can instantly cycle a tank. Just run two filters in an established, larger tank for a couple of weeks and remove one of the filters and put it on the tank you want to cycle.
Instant good bacteria to handle the nitrogen in the new tank. I've done it a couple of times with no problems. Just make sure the filter media comes from a tank that's larger than the one you want to instantly cycle or there won't be enough of the microscopic bugs to process the nitrogen in the new tank.
B
