Starting a Cycle

[Trout11B]

I'm gearing up to start a fishless cycle on a 55g tank. I keep seeing people talking about seeding their tanks. I have an idea what this involves but if someone could just clarify that would be great. I have a friend who has a 250g fw tank, would I be able to use something from his tank filter or substrate wherever the "seed" material came from.

 

[Lawngnome]

That should help with the cycling a bit, put some of his media straight into your filter and let it be.

 

[BigJim]

+1. Filter media would be best.

 

[OhNeil1969]

+1
Filter media is definitely the easiest way to go. Using substrate requires more work with diminished returns. The one thing I might check is the overall health of the donor tank, especially check for an ich breakout. I'm not sure if ich can survive for long in a tank without fish and high ammonia, but I'd be concerned if there was evidence of it in the donor tank. If anything else, an untreated ich problem could be an indication that the donor isn't taking care of his tank. I wouldn't want you to suffer the burden of someone else's misdeeds.

 

[Trout11B]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll give his tank a once over when I get closer to needing the seeding material.

 

[mudraker]

Ich cannot survive without a host fish, so any ich in the seeding tank (if there is any) would not survive in the new tank without fish.

You have to give it a week or so (depending on the water temp) to ensure no ich parasites survive.

 

[Trout11B]

What should the temp be?

 

[OhNeil1969]

I'm cycling at close to 80 degrees right now. I've read a lot of posts about cycling and the ones that mention temp seem to all agree that 80 degrees is a good temp.

 

[ejaramillo01]

I cycled in 5 weeks at temp of 82 degrees