How Quick Will It Cycle With Safestart And Dirty Filter Floss?

[upNdown]

In case anybody is reading along, this tank is undoubtedly cycled.  At 5 weeks it's supporting a healthy community with no ammonia and producing appropriate levels of nitrates.
It's tough to know exactly when the tank was cycled because I think the population was too low (and perhaps I was underfeeding) to see significant nitrate production until some time around week four.  And though I don't believe that the safetstart instantly cycled the tank, it's interesting to note that I never got even a hint of a nitrite reading.  I suppose it's possible that I have a faulty test kit, but I think that's more likely an effect of the safetstart (though not an effect I ever read of.)

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A tank is only ever cycled for the amount of bio load it supports. If you had a 5000 gallon tank with only a single goldfish in it for 5 years, that tank would be cycled, but if you remove the Goldie and replaced it with 1000 neon tetras, there would be a huge ammonia spike, because it wouldn't be capable of handling that bio load. Which is why folks are advised to add fish slowly. This gives the colony of bacs a chance to reproduce to deal with the increased bio load of new fish.