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iam cycling my 10 gallon tank..its been running for 4 days with only 3 fish...one died....(barbs) How long should i cycle? I have been doing 20% h2o changes daily and leaving my filter alone while adding some ammonia tablets and some water conditioners. What else should i be doing?


Peter

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Cycling a tank takes around 21-35 days, possibly longer depending on your conditions.
Do not be afraid however, if it takes twice this length of time.
One of my tanks took almost 90 days to fully cycle, which I found out was because I was doing water changes too frequently.
If you have test kits for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, you could keep a chart to help follow your cycle and track it.
You should buy these test kits if you have them.
Also, adding ingredients such as ammonia fizzers, is not a good idea, as some of these items prevent ammonia from peaking, which will basically keep your tank in a state of constant cycle with no end. Plus, most of them mess up your test results, so you can never be sure if they are right.
You should purchase some water conditioner if you dont have it, Prime is the best- it removes heavy metals, chlorine and chloramine, and detoxifies (but doesnt remove) ammonia and nitrites. This allows your tank to cycle without interference, but helps your fish through it. Dont gasp at the price, you use a teeny tiny amount, and a bottle of Prime will last 10 times longer than the traditional water conditioners.
Try to avoid water changes if you can- do them only if the fish appear to be suffering, and only do small ones, like 15% max. For a 10g tank, that would be half of a 3 gallon bucket.
Good luck, and good speed on your cycle!


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If you have NIC(new improved cycle) or biospira I would add those. This will help to speed up the cycle process. I would also not add anymore stock to the tank.

This filter should be a biological filter. Some of the more common ones are sponge filters, box filters and undergravel filters. If your motivation is to produce eye candy the undergravel filter may be best. If your main concern is the health of the fish and you could care less what it looks like the other two are better.

If this tank was completely sterile it would take about two weeks to establish the bacteria tha convert ammonia from food, fish waste, dead animales or plants into nitrites. Then it would take another two weeks to establish the bacteria that convert nitrites to nitrates. The bacteria would come from the air and establish in the filter media. You can speed up the process (seed the tank) by adding some water from the tank where you got the fish or by adding plants or by adding a filter or other stuff from an established tank. The tank would not have to be new to be sterile, some medicines cause a tank to become sterile. Ammonia, nitrites and to a lesser extent nitrates are all toxic to fish. These chemicals are used by plants for fertilizer. The air bubbling through the water removes some of them too.

I like to use polyester quilt batting as a home for the bacteria in box or undergravel filters. I put a little gravel in my box filters for weight. I use quilt batting between the gravel and filter if it is an undergravel filter. I do not use activated carbon because it removes some medicines from the water and it is important to have air while medicating.

max

When I started outI cycled my 30 gal tank with six harlequin rasboras, left it alone except for adding the stress zyme and stress kote (as directed) and it took eighteen days for the ammonia and niterite to drop and nitrate to start. I tested every day to make sure.

Nothing personal mate, but I don't agree with this fish in tank cycling of yours.
You say there's 3 fish in the tank, and 1 has died already?
The absolute very, very least you could of done was to of used water conditioner and let the tank run for atleast 1 week. Then taken a sample of water to your LFS and had them check if the water is even remotely ready to accept the little guys.
I think it's sad that some people get their tanks "ready" by adding some fish they don't care about before adding the fish they really do want
I mean you don't buy your son or daughter a mongral dog to first practise on before buying them the pedigree?
And when the mongral dies it's no problem because you never really likes it anyway.
I just can't see the logic of some people to cycle tanks with fish.
Can some of the older (not age wise) members give me a hand here? Or don't you agree?
I know in some places neutral amonia etc is hard to get hold of, but if your serious you can do it. Even in darkest ( ! ) Africa we can do it.
Think about it

Philip:88)