[RJRofFL]

Hi Shanz,

In an attempt to answer your question, I can tell you that my personal experience resulted in a total of 5 weeks. However, I made a few mistakes along the way which obviously "stalled" it a bit.

As I researched it, prior to doing it, I found that when this method was developed, a Dr. Chris Cow (I am not sure if he actually invented it or just popularized it, but it doesn't matter), actually performed substantial testing of the process. The results were varied, but, the speediest was about 2 weeks (+/- 2 days), and the slowest was 4 1/4 weeks.

I have been advised that there are methods to help speed up the process, but I have my doubts. For example, I've been told to add fish flakes and/or frozen shrimp to aid in the creation of ammonia.
I dispute this, only because, in using pure logic (I am a dummy, remember), both fish flakes and shrimp do take time to decay and form ammonia, so, what's the sense when you can add actual ammonia straight from the bottle? Doh!

I think the key points are simply to continue to add ammonia to the end, maintain continuous oxegenation, and keep the temp around 80-85 (not higher). This seems to be the most ideal conditions for the little bugger bacteria to thrive.

Anyway, that's JMHO.

I hope this helped to answer your question.

Bob