7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
Madness said:I didn't pull the week to ten days out of my hat. It's pulled from my experience. It's related to the parameters I use to cycle. Change the parameters - change the time - change what your experience will be.
From my vantage point, fishless cycling isn't the answer. In fact, it's a completely unnecessary waste of time that lasts for weeks.
Yes, there is a superior aspect to fish cycling. We get to enjoy our aquatic life without wasting weeks dosing ammonia and performing water tests on an empty tank.
Have you ever done a fishless cycle? My educated guess says no. You are trying to paint a fish cycle like its just over in a week, and that a fishless cycle takes multiple weeks. Again I feel you are just randomly guessing at numbers. Or just misinformation on the part of fishless cycling.
So here's some numbers for you (and I will not say this is average, or short, because it depends on each individual's tank and circumstances):
-I fishless cycled my tank in 17 days (want proof, check the huge thread in the Getting Started forum). This was done with a handful of gravel from a friends tank. No filter media, no special additives or Biospira, and with very limited knowledge of things that could speed up the cycle. I ignored the tank for the first couple days. After that I checked the nitrIte levels once every day or 2. 5 minutes for the test. Again no water changes. Once I saw a blip of nitrIte I went back to checking ammonia levels once a day. 5 minutes. When it went below 1ppm I added another couple drops and sat back and relaxed again. In a short period of time I was done. Oh, and ready to completely stock my tank (I did it over a period of 3 days just to be safe, as much from the stress of trying to move all these fish as my own fear that I hadn't prepared the tank enough). I went from an empty tank (no plants) to 6 tiger barbs, 7 cherry-gold checkered barbs, 3 Oto's, and 3 cory's......in 3 days. No crazy water changes because I overstocked (this was a 20 gallon tank), no more monitoring other than the occasional ammonia check to make sure some problem didn't arise, just happy fish that were transplanted into a perfectly safe tank.
During those 17 days I did ONE PWC to bring the nitrItes down to a readable range, and then a 90% PWC before adding in the fish to remove the nitrAtes. It cost me $1 for the ammonia.