CYCLE QUESTION 8-10 days?

[teddy]

i set up my 55gal. about 8-10 days ago , i put a stocking full of gravel from my established tank in it, i have been taking the established filter and leting it set in the new filter for about an hour at a time intervals , and added one plant and a few barbs and red eyed tetra and a pleco, i am showing 0nitrates and 0 nitrites could it be possible that i intoduced a small amount of bacteria from my established tank and by providing the few fish slowly i have avoided the deadly ammonia spikes and if i continue to add very slowly more fish all will be okay??or am i dreaming? i have 4 very beautiful adult angel fish that i hope to move to my new 55 gal soon but only when i know all is safe , any advice for me??

[Puffer Pita]

Using gravel and media from an established tank to seed a new tank will greatly speed up the cycle, yes. I would say you're fine to add fish, very slowly, just keep an eye on the parameters after each addition.

[girth vader]

I'm not sure what you mean by putting your old filter in your new one at 1 hour intervals. Do you mean the filter media? however if you put a seeded filter on the new tank it's instantly cycled, providing there are fish in there as an ammonia source. If you put the new flter in your old tank for a cpl weeks then move it to the new tank your fine. you can also clean your old media in the new tank and let the new filter suck it up, that works as well.

You may want to double check your test readings by bringing water to you LFS. Not all test kits are created equal, and they do have a shelf life. You may be getting false readings, better to be sure and have it tested by another to be safe.

[mousey]

actually it will not always be instantly cycled by adding old filter media. i have kick started the cycling process this way but if you are starting a new setup with all new water and tank there is usually about a 10 - 15 day period for the bacteria to catch up. The cycle is reduced in duration but not completely finished unless you have a huge amount of bacteria you have added.
If I take old media from 3 different tanks (15 gal each) and add it to a 5 gallon new tank i still end up with a 2 week cycle.
I believe this is because my tap water contains ammonia, the fish are adding to it and there is not enough bacteria to convert all that ammonia fast enough. And then if the ammonia isn't converted, the bacteria that would convert the nitrites into nitrates just up and die. I am finding that some old water in the new tank as well as old media and gravel is a better way to go.
In the new set up there are no bacteria on the walls of the tank either. Just my experience and i have tried this method with my last 6 tanks I set up.
I have only had one instant cycle and I used all old water, gravel and media (100%) and moved it into the same size tank.
Even when I moved everything from a 10 gal to a 15 gallon I still had a 7 day cycle.

I would love to have instant cycle!!And we cannot get biospira here.

[girth vader]

makes sense if your tap is already high NH3/4. I usually don't get any NH3/4 reaadings from my tap and I haven't had an actual cycle period in years, just throw on the old filter and away I go. However for my 270g I grabbed half of the water from my lfs and trucked it up. and I haven't had any noticeable readings and it had been 6 months. Biospira is hard to get in a lot of places. Its here in abundance and relatively cheap too. I guess being a Canuck has an advantage once and awhile.......

[mousey]

What part of canada are you in? i am in the Toronto area and cannot get Biospira!

[girth vader]

Originally Posted by mousey

What part of canada are you in? i am in the Toronto area and cannot get Biospira!

Hamilton. Just down the road.

[mousey]

spent 13 years in hamilton-1966 to 1979. My kids were all born there.Then we moved to newmarket.What kind of fish stores are there now?
is the pollution as bad is it used to be? We lived up on the mountain near a cement factory- Always dirty air.

[girth vader]

lol. I live on the mountain as well. But if you haven't been here in awhile I doubt you would recognize it. When I'm away on bizz for 3 weeks I come back and there is something new. Almost overly developed now. I'm sure you remeber aquarium services, they are still around, under the Big Als umbrella. There is also "MOPS" www.mops.ca they are pretty good as well and they are just around the corner from me. There are a few ps in NFNY that I take a trip to. Next time you want biospira, let me know via PM and I can grab you some and ship it.