Speeding My Cycle

[PerryClem0842]

Is there any possibility that I can speed up my cycle, by doing less water changes or doing more changes

orrrr .....

 

[TwoTankAmin]

When done properly water changes should not impact a fishless cycle. Just replace any ammonia removed or do the water change before doing that day's given ammonia dose.

When doing a fish in cycle, doing water changes can be the only thing that prevent the fish from dying.

Both types of cycle go faster the more bacteria with which you can seed the tank at the outset.

 

[PerryClem0842]

I have a fish in cycle so its best to do water changes, but how often

 

[gdoggy1678]

Take a gander at this, This has everything that will have to be done durring a Fish-In cycle. It is very important that you invest in some kind of liqiud test kit.
The only thing that can be done to speed this cycle and to make the environment safer for your fish would be to ask someone with a established aquarium for some of there mature filter media.
Fish-In cycling

 

[This Old Spouse]

+1

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The only thing that can be done to speed this cycle and to make the environment safer for your fish would be to ask someone with a established aquarium for some of there mature filter media.

Well this is not quite true. One can also use bacteria in a bottle such as DrTim's OneAndOnly, Seachem's Stability or Tetra's SafeStart. But the OP only asked about water changes.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The only thing that can be done to speed this cycle and to make the environment safer for your fish would be to ask someone with a established aquarium for some of there mature filter media.

Well this is not quite true. One can also use bacteria in a bottle such as DrTim's OneAndOnly, Seachem's Stability or Tetra's SafeStart. But the OP only asked about water changes.

The jury is still out with bottled bacteria, as there is nothing that's feeding it in the bottle! It has to feed to live. And the title of this post is "Speeding my cycle", and I'd think this is pertinent. e

 

[afremont]

The only thing that can be done to speed this cycle and to make the environment safer for your fish would be to ask someone with a established aquarium for some of there mature filter media.

Well this is not quite true. One can also use bacteria in a bottle such as DrTim's OneAndOnly, Seachem's Stability or Tetra's SafeStart. But the OP only asked about water changes.

The jury is still out with bottled bacteria, as there is nothing that's feeding it in the bottle! It has to feed to live. And the title of this post is "Speeding my cycle", and I'd think this is pertinent. e

I'll do a +1 on the TSS, it's always worked for me (so far). I've used it to slowly start a tank with a few fish, and I also put 14 mosquitofish in a 10 gallon tank and dumped in some TSS and it instantly (within 24 hours) cycled. I also damaged my biological filter in one tank and suffered a spike of nitrItes. After waiting for three days and not seeing it start to decline I got ansi and dumped in some TSS. 24 hours later, no nitrItes. My latest test for it was to jump start a new 20 gallon tank for nine dwarf gourami rescue fish moving out of the hospital. So far three days into it and no appreciable ammonia (my treated tap water always shows a bit of ammonia on the API test kit, harmless ammonium apparently) and no nitrItes. It seems to be useful, kinda expensive, but useful nonetheless. BTW, I'm setting up another 20 gallon that will house half of the rescue fish to get the crowding down. I will use TSS and just add the fish. I am confident that they will be fine. One thing that will prevent TSS from working is ammonia lockers and conditioners that make nitrItes safe by binding them for 24 hours. I always age my water for at least 24 hours before adding. When doing a new tank I let it sit with treated water (I use Prime) for at least two days before adding the fish and the TSS. I never see any ammonia or nitrIte spikes, nitrAtes seem to start accumulating from day one. So far that's my personal experience with it.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I've heard the most positive comments about TSS, though I've never tried it. But maybe they've found the secret. Bravo if they have! Wouldn't that make things nice and easy for noobs!

 

[Steve H.]

I've heard the most positive comments about TSS, though I've never tried it. But maybe they've found the secret. Bravo if they have! Wouldn't that make things nice and easy for noobs!

With the exception of the fish....who wants it nice and easy?
Being a noob myself part of the enjoyment (believe it or not) was getting out my test kit everyday, doing my water changes everyday, and maintaining and caring for my tank during the cycling process. Almost miss it now that I'm cycled.
I would say 70 to 80% of us get into the hobby thinking you buy a tank and throw a fish in before you discover all of the actual Ecosystem in's and out's actually at play.
If they do develop a bacteria in a bottle that cycles a tank quickly I think that new fishkeepers would really miss out on learning necessary skills required to keep fish happy and healthy.
And you can only learn that by learning how to keep water.

Sorry...might be off the point but had to chirp in.

 

[afremont]

I've heard the most positive comments about TSS, though I've never tried it. But maybe they've found the secret. Bravo if they have! Wouldn't that make things nice and easy for noobs!

With the exception of the fish....who wants it nice and easy?
Being a noob myself part of the enjoyment (believe it or not) was getting out my test kit everyday, doing my water changes everyday, and maintaining and caring for my tank during the cycling process. Almost miss it now that I'm cycled.
I would say 70 to 80% of us get into the hobby thinking you buy a tank and throw a fish in before you discover all of the actual Ecosystem in's and out's actually at play.
If they do develop a bacteria in a bottle that cycles a tank quickly I think that new fishkeepers would really miss out on learning necessary skills required to keep fish happy and healthy.
And you can only learn that by learning how to keep water.

Sorry...might be off the point but had to chirp in.

I hear you, and I agree on the learning point. I did do my daughter's betta tank the old fashioned way, since I figured the fish was pretty durable and I wanted to follow the progress of the cycle. I have also had to set up some tanks with little notice and no sponge filter ready to drop in and didn't want to wait and really couldn't. BTW, our betta lives in a 10 gallon tank at a nice toasty 80F. He likes it I think. He's certainly happier than he was at the store.

My (re)start into the hobby after many years off was when my wife and daughter brought home two glo-fish and a 1 gallon tank. Still got one of them, the other died of water toxicity while I learned all the things I never knew in years of keeping fish when I was a kid. I wish I'd have known that TSS would have saved the other fish, but I wouldn't have all the tanks I do now.

It's my understanding that nitrobacter in TSS (which is apparently not found in any real concentration in a cycled tank) somehow primes everything up and gets the nitrosomonas (NH3 -> NO2) and nitrospira (NO2 -> NO3) multiplying like mad. I have no idea how, and after trying to interpret a study on it, I don't think they are all that sure either. ;-)

I found this interesting and informative:
http/www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aquarium-nitrogen-cycle/58116-q-tetra-tetra-safestart.html
Straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.

 

[Steve H.]

I've heard the most positive comments about TSS, though I've never tried it. But maybe they've found the secret. Bravo if they have! Wouldn't that make things nice and easy for noobs!

With the exception of the fish....who wants it nice and easy?
Being a noob myself part of the enjoyment (believe it or not) was getting out my test kit everyday, doing my water changes everyday, and maintaining and caring for my tank during the cycling process. Almost miss it now that I'm cycled.
I would say 70 to 80% of us get into the hobby thinking you buy a tank and throw a fish in before you discover all of the actual Ecosystem in's and out's actually at play.
If they do develop a bacteria in a bottle that cycles a tank quickly I think that new fishkeepers would really miss out on learning necessary skills required to keep fish happy and healthy.
And you can only learn that by learning how to keep water.

Sorry...might be off the point but had to chirp in.

I hear you, and I agree on the learning point. I did do my daughter's betta tank the old fashioned way, since I figured the fish was pretty durable and I wanted to follow the progress of the cycle. I have also had to set up some tanks with little notice and no sponge filter ready to drop in and didn't want to wait and really couldn't. BTW, our betta lives in a 10 gallon tank at a nice toasty 80F. He likes it I think. He's certainly happier than he was at the store.

My (re)start into the hobby after many years off was when my wife and daughter brought home two glo-fish and a 1 gallon tank. Still got one of them, the other died of water toxicity while I learned all the things I never knew in years of keeping fish when I was a kid. I wish I'd have known that TSS would have saved the other fish, but I wouldn't have all the tanks I do now.

It's my understanding that nitrobacter in TSS (which is apparently not found in any real concentration in a cycled tank) somehow primes everything up and gets the nitrosomonas (NH3 -> NO2) and nitrospira (NO2 -> NO3) multiplying like mad. I have no idea how, and after trying to interpret a study on it, I don't think they are all that sure either. ;-)

I found this interesting and informative:
http/www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aquarium-nitrogen-cycle/58116-q-tetra-tetra-safestart.html
Straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.

It is pretty interesting. Keep an open mind I guess...but I am a notorious cheap skate, and would probably speed up my cycle by doing 50% water changes every day knowing I would be cycled in about 3 weeks.
Plus, seems like w/c' have less room for keeper error. A lot of don't for 24 hours, 7 days, in 2 days do this kind of stuff to keep track of with the tss....but if it works

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It has to feed to live.

This statement is not correct.

A common misconception about bacteria in general is that they die if they are not fed. From a human being point of view this sounds perfectly reasonable: if you don’t eat, you die. However, bacteria are not human beings. Bacteria operate much differently than people and have a variety of ways to deal with those times when resources are not available for them to grow and reproduce. Some bacteria when stressed (from say lack of nutrients) form spores and go into a resting stage waiting for conditions to improve. Nitrifiers do not form spores but have other mechanisms to deal with nutrient deficient periods. For nitrifiers, one way to deal with stressful conditions is to forming a protective ‘shield” called EPS. EPS stands for extracellular polymeric substances and is, in simplistic terms, an organic protective shield that research shows inhibits various organisms from attacking and breaking open the cell wall of nitrifiers. Nitrifiers belong to a very old line of bacteria (millions of years) and they have developed ways to cope with very long periods of “drought”.

If you want to know more about EPS, Google Scholar will return 39,600 research papers, books and citations ( I excluded patents from the search) http/scholar.google.com/scholar?q=extracellular+polymeric+substances&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=1%2C33