How long should my cycle take to get established?

[malfist]

I have a cycled 55 gallon tank that's been running for almost six months. I am about to get a new fish, so I am re-establishing my QT tank. It was broken down and bleached last week.

It's now up and running, new filter, new gravel, nice sparkling clean. I have 4-6 cups of gravel from the 55 gallon tank in a mesh bag sitting in the tank. I'm also dosing it with ammonia to bring the ammonia up to 4.0 ppm.

Given these conditions with the seed material, how long should my cycle take?

 

[jlk]

With just some seeded gravel, probably a couple of weeks or longer. If you can add some cycled media to the filter, this will have the greatest effect on speeding up a cycle.

 

[malfist]

My main tank has two filters, but they're side by side (like the emperor 400). Would moving one of the filter cartridges into the new tank speed it up? I obviously couldn't move the entire filter.

 

[jlk]

This will help alot! You can also stick an airstone/bubbler under the bag of gravel to help as well. Just keep an eye on your parameters after moving the filter cartridge in case theres a mini-cycle.