Seeding Question

[jetajockey]

Its not luck, but a precise science that could be repeated multiple times with the same result being ~2 weeks. It helps greatly if you can get a dropper since pouring ammonia from bottle directly into the tank is not considered precise.

I'm done with setting up FW tanks, so no more trials. My 16 day cycling a 120g tank is proof enough for me. Next project will be SW.

Okay, let me preface this stating that I'm not trying to be argumentative, just trying to get some clarification for the sake of being accurate.

I understand that this is your experience, but I want to go a little deeper on a few things.

The general consensus is that it takes approx 4-6 weeks give or take for a fishless cycle to complete. This is with both ~4ppm ammonia dosing and ~5ppm dosing as mentioned in the various fishless cycling guides.

That said, 5ppm is not going to speed the time up in any significant way (i.e. cut the time in half). There a few reasons why I say this.

1. It's only 1ppm more, there isn't a magic #, as long as there is ammonia in the water, the bacteria are eating and and multiplying. Granted, there is an optimal PPM to keep in the tank for 'maximum' growth, but it's not an exact science by any means.

2. The API kit, which is basically what everyone uses, does not even read in 1ppm increments. It goes straight from 4ppm to 8ppm, so anyone using this kit would not be able to even get a 5ppm per a chart reading. Also, the color matching test method is far from exacting, since it relies on color shading to guess what the water is sitting at. It's close enough for what we do in home aquaria, but getting an exact ppm is not going to happen reliably with that method of testing.

I truly believe your tank cycled without seeded media in 2 weeks as you stated, but it's far from the norm, and I've yet to see any evidence pointing towards that particular method to be vastly different than the basic 4ppm method that most people do here.

If you can explain otherwise I would be glad to hear it, though.

 

[Terrance]

Nope I don't know how and why this works like it does. General concensus on thepufferforum is that it takes 10-14 days to cycle a tank if done precisely or to use Tetra Safestart or Dr Tim's One & Only for establishing all the necessary bacteria in 7-10 days.

The scale goes from 4 to 8, so it was tough when I did it. I'm thinking that's why I got it done 2 days later than expected.

I'll probably gotta ask someone who studies these kinds of things for some answers.