Cycling

[Trainer_Ruby_]

What exactly is cycling? I know that it creates the bacteria that changes ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. But what exactly happens and how long does it take without fish sir a 10g tank to cycle?


Keep calm and drum on

 

[Clayman]

That is exactly what is it. Cycling a tank means, growing the necessary bacteria needed for the nitrogen cycle to take place. There's really no set amount of time, it takes as long as it takes. That being said, one can speed up the process with seeded filter media from an established tank/system. When I did it on my 10g it took 6 weeks

 

[Fel]

It's simply allowing the bacteria to grow. The problem with the bacteria is that the ammonia->nitrite->nitrate produces very little energy for the bacteria to use. Because of this they grow very slowly, taking days of time to go through a generation compared to the 20 minutes or so of say a bacteria such as e. coli.

Cycling time will vary, generally you can expect it to take about a month plus or minus a couple of weeks depending on water parameters, and a bit of luck. Having seeded media can greatly reduce this amount of time.

It's important to cycle the tank, you want to establish enough bacteria in your tank so that they can consume the ammonia and nitrite faster than your fish can create it.

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[Trainer_Ruby_]

If you add fish that create more waste should it be cycled longer? Like should a tank for mollies be cycled longer than a tank for guppies?


Keep calm and drum on

 

[Fel]

In fish-less cycling your "done" when you can dose your tank to 4ppm of ammonia and it and all the nitrites it produces are gone within 24 hours.

When done doing your fishless cycle you will have a robust biological filter and be able to add anything within reason to your tank.

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[gilpi]

Do a search on the net, you'll be quite busy reading.

Basically you want to grow bacteria in you filter that will turn fish waste into less harmful stuff, this is achieved by introducing a couple of fish in the tank, doing some water changes and let time do its job or a fishless cycle which is done by adding ammonia to a tank and also letting time do its job.
It can get a bit more involved than this but it doesn't have to, patience is key here.


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