How do I cycle a tank faster?

[Mint]

I have a betta. He’s currently chilling in a 5 gallon, but unfortunately his tank is on a cabinet I need to move soon. I’ve ordered a fishtank that fits on my bookshelf that he can go in, but I’d like it to cycle faster so I can move him soon. How do I do this?

 

[Naughts]

Move the filter from the old tank in with him, or at least the media from it. And add some of the old substrate, use a mesh bag if you want to remove it easily later on.
I always recommend floating plants for betta tanks.

 

[sharkweek178]

Using filter media from an established tank will speed the process up.
If you have enough fast growing plants, particularly floaters then you can bypass the traditional cycling process. But you have to make sure they are growing will before adding fish. So it's not an instant solution.

 

[Mint]

I’ll just use the filter media and substrate. I might add red root floaters, but my last gourami got trapped in them and almost died, so kind of wary.

 

[Colin_T]

Floating plants can slow the cycling process by using any ammonia in the water, thus starving the filter bacteria and limiting their growth.

It's unlikely the plants killed your gourami. Gouramis naturally live among plants and plant roots and don't normally get caught up in them.

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Some ways to speed up the cycling process.
Have the top of the tank open to let bacteria in the air land on the water and help inoculate the tank.

Adding some established filter media (not the gunk, just the media) to the new tank can speed things up.

Raise the water temperature to 28-30C. This allows the filter bacteria to grow faster. You can reduce the temperature after the tank has cycled.

Have lots of aeration/ surface turbulence. Beneficial filter bacteria are aerobic and like lots of oxygen.

Keep the pH around 7.0 and the KH above 100ppm. The bacteria use some KH so making sure there is plenty available helps them grow.

Add a liquid filter bacteria supplement. I recommend adding a double dose every day for a week and then pour the remaining contents into the tank. Try to add the bacteria near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

 

[Mint]

The gourami survived, he was just stuck in them and had to be detangled. Alright, I’ll use a air stone for the turbulence. Where do they sell bacteria supplement? I’ve never seen it in store. I use distilled, since my tapwater is too hard to support much of anything beyond cichlids and livebearers, so it’ll stay at a ph of 7 regardless. And I can leave the lid off.

 

[Essjay]

If stores don't sell it, how abut Amazon? Look for Dr Tim's One & Only or Tetra Safe Start as these contain the correct nitrite eaters.

 

[Colin_T]

You can mix distilled water with some dechlorinated tap water to reduce the GH. It would be cheaper than using pure distilled water.

 

[Mint]

No, it’s 220 ppm of hardness, with a PH above 8. And all my fish like acid, because everything I like has to come from the Amazon. Or alternatively, be a betta. I’m giving up and getting a RO/DI system.

Alright, ordered the Safe Start! His tank should be arriving around Wednesday. I’m going to take his filter and a little bit of his substrate as well and use it.

 

[Il_bristlenose_catfis]

dose with prime every second day for 10 days along with stability (thats what i do and it works) also just some more advice if you get an ammonia spike use Seachem Amguard

 

[Byron]

dose with prime every second day for 10 days along with stability (thats what i do and it works) also just some more advice if you get an ammonia spike use Seachem Amguard

Prime is not a treatment, it is a conditioner for fresh water and should not be used except for any fresh tap water added as during a partial water change. There are chemicals in Prime that should not be dosed beyond what is absolutely essential. Even Seachem will advise it is not to be used other than with water changes.

Stability is best forgotten. It does not contain the nitrifying bacteria strains, so as some sort of "cycling" chemical it is not advisable. Scientific tests have proven that it may speed up the 8-week cycling by a day or two, but that is not even worth bothering about. The less chemicals added to a tank with fish the better the fish will be.

 

[Il_bristlenose_catfis]

Prime is not a treatment, it is a conditioner for fresh water and should not be used except for any fresh tap water added as during a partial water change. There are chemicals in Prime that should not be dosed beyond what is absolutely essential. Even Seachem will advise it is not to be used other than with water changes.

Stability is best forgotten. It does not contain the nitrifying bacteria strains, so as some sort of "cycling" chemical it is not advisable. Scientific tests have proven that it may speed up the 8-week cycling by a day or two, but that is not even worth bothering about. The less chemicals added to a tank with fish the better the fish will be.

Ok so first of all. I use prime to detoxify the ammonia not to treat, so the bacteria can eat the detoxified ammonia and nitrite to grow. (also this is just what works for me) and i just use stability occasionally I mostly use one and only. also prime can be dosed 5x the recommended dose and its still ok

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Do not wste your time and money with stability. t is a bottle of spores and the Archaea and Bacteria we need in our tanks do not form spores. Do not dose Prime every day when cycling as it will slow the cycle and it will also mess up your test results.

I am using Prime® to control ammonia but my test kit says it is not doing anything, in fact it looks like it added ammonia! What is going on?
A: A Nessler based kit will not read ammonia properly if you are using Prime®... it will look "off scale", sort of a muddy brown (incidentally a Nessler kit will not work with any other products similar to Prime®). A salicylate based kit can be used, but with caution. Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime® complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime®), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away. However, the best solution ;-) is to use our MultiTest™ Ammonia kit; it uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by the presence of Prime® or other similar products. It also has the added advantage that it can detect the more dangerous free ammonia and distinguish it from total ammonia (total ammonia is both free ammonia and non-toxic ionized forms of ammonia).

I tested my tap water after using Prime® and came up with an ammonia reading. Is this because of chloramine? Could you explain how this works in removing chloramine?

A: Prime® works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime® will not halt your cycling process.

I am going to assume that you were using a liquid based reagent test kit (Nessler based, silica). Any type of reducing agent or ammonia binder (dechlorinators, etc) will give you a false positive. You can avoid this by using our MultiTest™ Ammonia kit (not affected by reducing agents) or you can wait to test, Prime® dissipates from your system within 24 hours.

both quotes from the FAQ here https://www.seachem.com/prime.php


Safe Start will do the trick especially if you move the filter media or entire filter onto the new tank. The same applies to the substrate. where much ot the good bacteria lives. Bear in mind between moving the filter media, the substrate and adding the Safe Start the tank should be read to hold fish safely prett much immediately. But to be cerarin you can also add 1 ppm of ammonia to the tank and test it in 12 hours. You should get 0 for boyh ammonia and nitrite and some nitrate. If not, test again in 12 hours. Buyt then you will have Os.

Adding live plants does not effect the cycle because the plants become part of the cycle. They use the ammonium while the Bacteria and Archaea use the ammonia. However, in water ammonia turns into mostly ammonium. However plants do not make nitrite nor nitrate. In fact they may use nitrate. Plants are also able to consume ammonium faster than the microorganisms can conusme ammoia.

No matter how many plants are in a tank, there will always be some amount of microorganisms at work. However, in a tank with no live plants and minimal algae, the Bacteria and Archaea will handle all of the ammonia and then the nitrite and, in some cases even the nitrate.

It is important to understand in a heavily planted tank removing a lot of the plants is the same thing as removing a lot of the bio-media and substrate in a tank with no plants. In both vcases you are removing what handles the ammonias and anything that might or might not produce.. Both will mess up the ccyle with the result you will get an ammonia spike followed by the usual suspects.

 

[Il_bristlenose_catfis]

i Followed kevs advice and it worked perfectly

 

[Byron]

This is exactly what happens when aquarists listen to anyone they come across on the internet. This fellow is repeating the sales hype from Seachem. First, Stability does not contain the nitrifying bacteria, period. It may help speed up the cycling but only by a day if that. You can listen to the scientists who have proven this, or to some half-wit.

Prime is a conditioner, and it should never be used to deal with high ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. The detoxifying aspect of these by Prime is intended to deal with ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that may be in the source water, and Prime is only effective for 24-36 hours, at which time the substances revert back to being toxic. This window allows the bacteria/plants in the tank to deal with the influx of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate at a water change. It is not intended to deal with these otherwise.

The chemicals in Prime are detrimental and dangerous if overdosed.