Cycling

[jimmongan]

I am in the process of setting up a 180 gallon freshwater tank and doing some research on fish less cycling and had a question/thought. I don't think I will be filling up the tank for a week or two but had an idea on trying to jump start the filter. I was thinking of taking a 5 gallon bucket and putting a few scoops of gravel along with filter media in it and then filling it up with water and adding some ammonia to try and get the cycling process started. I could even put my heater and an air stone in the bucket and when I finally get the tank set up and filled with water I could sprinkle the gravel around the tank and add the media to my filter. I was wondering any thoughts on if this might work to jump start building up the bacteria colonies and would using a higher concentration of ammonia be a good idea under this plan.

 

[ktomminello]

I would see if you could get some very heavily used filter media from a reputable lfs bury it in bucket of substrate with enough water to just cover the substrate/ a couple centimeters above the substrate and let it be for however long until you decide to use it. You could also run a small internal filter with a piece of seeded media inside a sponge in a 5g bucket with your new filter media.

 

[chykityta]

I would NOT trust a 180 gallon new tank with LFS media. I would totally go fish less. It sounds like this would be your baby and I like your plan. Your bucket idea is good (adding ammonia to a bucket and let it sit). The problem is, if your bucket holds 5 gallons of water, then you are only building bacteria for 5 gallons. So yes, it is a good idea but you need more buckets for your idea to work.

Just my two cents.


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[chykityta]

Oh and remember to add bubbles and a heater on a very high temp for the bucket to really work for jump starting your cycle. Otherwise, you will just have a source of Ammonia build up.


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