Fishless Cycle Timescale

[sparkycufc]

I am about to get a brand spanking new 120 litre and start a fishless cycle, my question is how long should I be allowing for it to cycle. I intend on going away for a few days in the near future and hope to time this for when the cycle has finished. I trust the father in law enough to feed fish on a daily basis but not to add ammonia and do the required tests.

How long roughly (I say roughly as I know it can vary) should I look at waiting before I go?

 

[pjandnoo]

Hi,

As you can see with the cycle im running at the moment its just past two weeks and im in the second phase of the cycle. So probably allow 2-4 weeks.

If you haven't read the post on cycling in the beginners section then have a read as its been an invaluable hep to me as have he people on this forum.

Have you got yourself some Ammonia and a liquid test kit yet??


Paul

 

[sparkycufc]

I have yes, I'm assuming the household ammonia from a pharmacy such as Boots is fine, it is an ammonia and water solution with ammonia at about 9%. Will hopefully get to build my stand this weekend after which it is on to the cycling.

 

[arobinson1984]

Boots ammonia is fine

If you can source some mature media from somewhere or somebody then the cycle would probably complete within 1-2 weeks.

If you are starting a fishless cycle from scratch with new filter & media etc then it can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks. It usually takes around 2 weeks for ammonia levels to start dropping and nitrite rising (this is the 2nd stage that pjandnoo mentioned) but the second stage normally takes a bit longer to complete before nitrites drop and the cycle completes.

There is no way of accurately saying how long it will take, every tank and every cycle is different in terms of how fast/slow it progresses. Set your water temperate to 29 degrees celcius, this is the ideal temp for bacterial growth.

Andy

 

[sparkycufc]

Boots ammonia is fine

If you can source some mature media from somewhere or somebody then the cycle would probably complete within 1-2 weeks.

Andy

I have some sponge from my old filter that I am keeping in my current tank in preparation for the new filter and tank, would they be helpful?

 

[arobinson1984]

Does the tank have fish in it?

The mature media won't be any good if it doesnt currently have a source of ammonia. Without an ammonia source, the beneficial bacteria will die at a rate of about 10% every 24 hours. In a mature tank that is up and running, the ammonia created by fish and waste feeds the bacteria.

Andy

 

[JustFrozen]

I am about to get a brand spanking new 120 litre and start a fishless cycle, my question is how long should I be allowing for it to cycle. I intend on going away for a few days in the near future and hope to time this for when the cycle has finished. I trust the father in law enough to feed fish on a daily basis but not to add ammonia and do the required tests.

How long roughly (I say roughly as I know it can vary) should I look at waiting before I go?

Good comments from those who replied already. Since it sounds like you're banking on a particular time-frame, I'd like to join in to stress what arobinson1984 was saying about it being a bit random as far as how long the cycle will take. There's an excellent post from WaterDrop in my fishless cycle thread about the reason why it takes people very different amount of times even when you exclude all the user-error things like not putting the proper amount of ammonia in every day. What I'm trying to get at is that with some luck you can be finished before 2 months is up, but you can just as easily end up well past 8 weeks. There's a member here that just recently finished after 4 long MONTHS. If I were you I would just plan to take the trip while your tank is cycling. At least if something goes wrong you can correct it when you get back as opposed to correcting a bunch of dead fish when you get back. Either way you're going to have to either keep the fish well fed or the filter well fed. I'd take my chances with the filter.

As for not trusting someone to dose the ammonia. I don't think there is a way around this. How about this suggestion: Take your trip during the nitrite spike phase of the cycle, pre-package a bunch of 2ppm doses of ammonia, and tell someone to add one of them per day. That's pretty hard to screw up. It's not all going to fall apart if they miss a day or double dose one day. You just dont want to starve the bacteria for too long during that phase. Obviously this isnt the ideal cycling conditions but it seems to me to be a fair balance for your out of town situation

 

[sparkycufc]

Does the tank have fish in it?

The mature media won't be any good if it doesnt currently have a source of ammonia. Without an ammonia source, the beneficial bacteria will die at a rate of about 10% every 24 hours. In a mature tank that is up and running, the ammonia created by fish and waste feeds the bacteria.

Andy

Hi Andy,

yes the tank has fish in it, it is my current 60 litre that will eventually be replaced by my new 120 litre. I got some mature sponge from a friend who was downsizing and have it sitting in my tank in preparation.


Nick.

 

[waterdrop]

JustFrozen wrote:
"As for not trusting someone to dose the ammonia. I don't think there is a way around this. How about this suggestion: Take your trip during the nitrite spike phase of the cycle, pre-package a bunch of 2ppm doses of ammonia, and tell someone to add one of them per day. That's pretty hard to screw up. It's not all going to fall apart if they miss a day or double dose one day. You just dont want to starve the bacteria for too long during that phase. Obviously this isnt the ideal cycling conditions but it seems to me to be a fair balance for your out of town situation."

Just to agree and add to this - I've found it easier to have friends, neighbors or family over to add ammonia than to feed fish! Its a very set thing and not too easily messed up, whereas part-timers invariably overfeed the fish unless you are really on them and get them to understand. Also very much agree that its a lot easier to come back and correct a fishless cycling situation than to have to start over with your fish.

~~waterdrop~~