Kinda dumb question

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

What does it mean when someone says "Did you seed the tank to cycle it/" or other things like that. Me personally never cycled, the store had cycled the tanks for me and gave em ovver to me so I never understood how and what are the main keys in cycling. Any help will be apreciated.

 

[Seiryoku]

Seeding a tank is when you take gravel, decorations and or the filter (like an HOB) out of a fully established tank and put it in the new, uncycled tank.

 

[davidmold]

Seeding the tank means somehow adding some bacteria to the tank in order to speed the cycling process.

The cycling process is quite simple: fish produce ammonia. Once there's ammonia present, bacteria grow that eat ammonia and make nitrite. After that, different bacteria grow that eat nitrite and produce nitrate. Once that gets going, the ammonia and nitrite are gone, as they are always processed by the bacteria colonies.

Both ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, so it can be bad news for any fish that are in the tank until there are enough bacteria to process them. Nitrate is toxic too, but only in larger amounts, so weekly water changes get rid of it. Plants and algae also eat the nitrates.

The bacteria live in the gravel and filter media (well, all over), and so you can kick-start the process by borrowing some filters or gravel from a tank that's already cycled.

 

[Seiryoku]

Guess I kinda left out why people seed tanks and what it does.

 

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

So if I use some of the gravel that will jump start the tank, what about ornaments and a plant? And how long do you think it will take if I seeded the tank?

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

it depends on how well you seed it. if you put all the gravel, and the filter maybe 1-2 weeks... but its a 5 going into a 20 right? or am i confused again? basically the more things you add from the old tank, the faster the cycle.

 

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

Well how I see it if I put the Gourami in the 20g to cycle with the cave ornament and the fake plant and along with a Otocinclus Catfish then it should be only a week or soand if I put in the fry in then it shouldn't be longer then a week.

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

if you use everything, you might only get a minicycle. you still should monitor the ammonia, just incase i dont know what i am talking about. it happens sometimes.

 

[UP UP AND GUPPY]

Oh definitely, I am monitoring everything. The ammonia, nitrates, nritrites, pH, high range pH, everything.