55 gallon

[exhumed07]

ok I'm planning on getting a 55 gal tank by next summer and was wanting to know how long it will take to cycle and what I can do in order to help it along. what I was planning on doing was to put some of my decorations and sand out of my old tank into my new one and myabe put a used filter into the tank as well to help get the bacteria into the tank. I was also goint to get some hardy goldfish as well before I put my more delicate fish in. and the last thing I was planning on doing was when I do a water change in my 10 gal. put some of the water into the new tank as well. now with doing that will my tank cycle faster or most likely cause problems? I just don't want to spend the money on biospira. stuff aint cheap. thanks for any info.

 

[Brinny-chan]

There are alot of sites about fishless cycling and lots of threads on here about it as well. Most people would probably recommend that over getting goldfish; they say it makes your tank capable of holding higher bioloads as well, and all at once because the bacteria are already able to handle large concentrations of ammonia.

Good luck on getting that tank; I wish I could get one that size.

 

[exhumed07]

well I was just wanting to get the tank cycled as fast as possible once I get it and thought that if I put in something like goldfish which produce lots of wast I would force the tank to cycle faster. I plan on removing the goldfish after the tank has cycled. I don't care for them myself and they are cheap.

 

[exhumed07]

does anyone here know how to speed up a cycle so it won't take verry long and how long does it normally take to cycle a tank?

 

[Fuzz16]

take water from an established tank
gravel
used filter
any objects, figurines, rocks and what not you have in a cycled tank would work great too. mine was cycled in 2 weeks. i had guppies and mollies in it after 2 days of the water sitting. i didnt loose one fish

what do you plan on putting in there?

 

[exhumed07]

well right now I got 2 dojo loaches 2 cory cats 3 guppies 1 neon 2 danios and 7 harlquin rasboras. not sure with what I'm going to put in it. kinda thought I would just go off the seat of my pants. find something like it buy it lol. I don't have a real plan except that I'm making my own caves going to have lots of driftwood with black sand (love the clean look of it for some reason) and not sure yet but maybe live plants. so whar u are saying is put in all my stuff from my tank I got now and it should be close to cycled by 2 weeks or so? not much of a nitrite or ammonia spike I"m guessing after putting in all that bactiria. thank you for your input.

 

[exhumed07]

why is it 5 min after I post something it don't come up in the new post section?

 

[Fuzz16]

maybe you go blind for 5 minutes? 0.0 might just be slow loading, who knows
well nothing live anyways. but ya it will help the cycle a bit. i still wouldnt put anything youd care to loose in there for a month though. it has to stabalize. i waited a month and a half to put in my discus.
if i were you id do discus!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thier lovely, expensive and time consuming but worth it in the end. or even a community tank with gouramis, tetras, angels, and kribs or rams. that would be nice too