Fish in cycle question

[Johny]

How long does a fish in cycle usually take with seeded filter material from another tank?

We are cycling a 10 gal tank for my wife. It has an AC filter and my 20 gal has an AC, so I pulled several of the biomax thingys from my filter and swapped them with new ones from hers. We put our 6 glowlight tetras in to do a fish in cycle.

I am keeping ammonia below .25 ppm (API master test kit) and I have not seen any nitrItes but nitrAtes have been climbing. Last night the nitrAtes were between 5-10 ppm. We have been cycling it for a week now.

Also, should I expect to see nitrItes at all since I used seeded material from my other tank? It feels like the BB are converting the ammonia all the way to nitrAtes. But it seems like there just isn't enough of them yet to keep up with all the ammonia. Not sure, this is actually my first (informed and with a test kit) fish in cycle.

 

[BHead707]

im confused as to why you did a fish in cycle in the first place.IMO its way too much of a hassle than just leaving the tetras in the other tank and do a fishless. Also the Bacteria would be able to handle up to 4ppm in 24hrs which would easily be able to handle whatever fish you throw in there.

 

[eco23]

It really depends on how much seeded media you brought over. Technically if you transferred over enough bacteria that it's capable of converting the waste your fish produce...it's pretty much an instant cycle. Since you are having some degree of ammonia spikes, it shows the bacteria to fish proportion is off. Just continue doing pwc's until the tank is stable. And yes, it's normal to never have no2 appear when using seeded media...still keep testing it though.

 

[Johny]

im confused as to why you did a fish in cycle in the first place.IMO its way too much of a hassle than just leaving the tetras in the other tank and do a fishless. Also the Bacteria would be able to handle up to 4ppm in 24hrs which would easily be able to handle whatever fish you throw in there.

@ Bjhead: Its only a ten gallon tank, and the kitchen sink is only ten steps away. It takes two buckets full and about 5 min to do a 50% water change. Also my wife and I are both students and on a limited budget. I am sure ammonia is cheap, but fish I already own are cheaper. So, IMO its really not much of a hassle.

@ Eco: Thanks, thats good to know. I have read a lot on here about cycling and all, just never seen a time frame before. Also there is a difference between understanding something (i.e. I have read about it) and knowing something (i.e. personal experience).

I still test the nitrItes; I run the full gambit of tests. As far as how much I moved over it was 4 of the biomax blocks