Cycling Questions

[xTylerLairx]

I am recently acquiring my second tank, but I was not responsible for cycling. The tank I am planning on cycling is a 45 gallon.
I plan on using some of the substrate in nylons and swapping the wheels from my bio wheels from my cycled tank to the new one, and I also have a bio bag in my aquaclear that I plan on putting in to help cycle.

My question in, roughly how long should I expect it to take my tank to be cycled and ready for my new fish?

 

[mfdrookie516]

There is no specific time frame to go by... it could take a week, being seeded from another tank, but could also take a month or more... It really just depends because there are so many variables that can affect the growth of the bacterial colony...

 

[xTylerLairx]

Okay, well I am at the same water source from my 125, which was not seeded. And it took about 2 or 3 weeks to be cycled completely

 

[Blueiz]

Because you are seeding the tank with a fairly large amount of bacteria, you can start to stock it slowly. Add 1/4 of your total stock the day you seed it, test levels for a week, if ammonia and nitrite stay at zero, add another 1/4 of the stock, and continue like this until you are stocked. What you do not want to do is put the seeded material on-in the new tank with no ammonia source, this will kill the good bacteria

 

[xTylerLairx]

okay, well the only issue with the 1/4 stock rule is that I am only adding 2 fish should I just add the first fish the first day, and monitor the levels?

 

[Blueiz]

LOL, what kind of fish are you stocking with?

If you wanted, you could seed the tank, build the bacteria levels up using the fishless cycle method too.

 

[jsoong]

Really depends on how much seeding you are doing.... If you are taking ALL of the media/substrate from the donor tank, you can immediately stock up to the amount in the donor tank. <Ie. you are just moving tanks ...>

I am assuming that you want to keep the donor tank setup, in that case, you would want to borrow no more than 1/4 the tank's media. You would not want to stock over 1/4 of the donor tank's load. Since your donor is a large tank, you can prob do the one fish if you take a good amount of seed material. Just monitor levels for a while to make sure all is well. <For reference, to seed a large tank from a small source, it would be better to build up the bacteria colony using a fishless method.>

 

[xTylerLairx]

I was planning on doing the fishless, and using the seed material from the donor tank, monitoring levels closely and then once it stabilizes getting my Eclipse cat and ordering my rainbow wolf

 

[fort384]

Just keep in mind (and you may already be doing this) that just putting the seed material in won't do it. The bacteria will die (starve) if there is no source of ammonia. You have to add some source of ammonia to the tank to keep the bacteria alive and multiplying - be it fish, a piece of shrimp, or pure ammonia from your lhs.

 

[xTylerLairx]

I decided on getting 3 fish...2 eclipse cats and a wolf, i will probably put in the 2 eclipse cats when i fill the tank(maybe an hour afterwards) and let those suckers poop!

 

[fort384]

45Gal tank is way way to small for your fish choices. A wolf fish alone needs 80Gal+.

 

[xTylerLairx]

actually, a rainbow wolf maxes out at 9 inches. which is fine for my tank. But thank you for your concern

 

[fort384]

I disagree, but I am by no means an expert on either species. Good luck!

 

[supradupafast]

Inch Per Gallon..

 

[xTylerLairx]

Fort, I do appreciate your input, and by no means offer any disrespect in what I said, i have been talking to many people about this tank for some time now(its gonna be my pride and joy!). All is looking well for it, and someday...if you were correct and I do need a bigger tank, then I will admit my fault.

Supra, that rule is a generalization, and you need to consider how big the fish get...with my situation, my wolf is VERY aggressive and needs pleanty of his own space for time out