How long to Cycle?

[jmonker]

Hey guys, hows it, Just had a quick question.. How long will it take my tank to cycle? Maybe to have few fish and couple corals? Its been awhile since iv cycled a tank... Everything is new in the tank, rock, sand... Everytthing? Let me kno

cheers

 

[Poseidon]

2-4 days with the proper bacteria additive  opcorn:

 

[dale]

how r u starting your cycle?... r u seeding with live rock at all.. feeding it.. adding a damsel..adding bacteria... small piece of shrimp one day bacteria the next?... any way ... it will be the tank that decides,... track your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate ,, but you need to get the ammonia going... (cycle started) then for most its i think its around a month or so... so ive read.. although i could be wrong.. the key is  patience and feel the force...

 

[TORX]

Just a quick question and how long for a tank to cycle can not be in the same topic. LoL. This is going to be a long tence thread...tank cycling ones always are.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 4

 

[Pistol]

Hey guys, hows it, Just had a quick question.. How long will it take my tank to cycle? Maybe to have few fish and couple corals? Its been awhile since iv cycled a tank... Everything is new in the tank, rock, sand... Everytthing? Let me kno

cheers

When I moved my tank I used new sand and about 50 lbs of reefsaver rock that I cooked for @ 3 months and @ 200 lbs of established live rock and dosed MB7 and it's just finished cycling now, @ 6 months. t took a long time for the reefsaver rock to cycle and start growing coraline algae. It was pretty much the same as when I first set it up.

 

[theyangman]

2-4 days with the proper bacteria additive  opcorn:

Are you just trying to cause shit? lol

 

[copperkills]

Tanks never stop cycling

 

[pulpfiction1]

lol

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk HD

 

[reeffreak]

There's really no exact amount of time to cycle a tank, there to many variables that come into play. Is the liverock "live"?  did you use live sand? how much rock to water ratio ? How to plan to seed the rock if its not live rock ?

 

[MrHermit85]

I used all dry rock and sand and it took 4 weeks. Used the shrimp method (used 2 and left them in a net till they were mostly gone) by this point my ammonia was quite high. Then started phantom feeding flake every few days and used seachem stabilty for the last week. There was a period between nitrites and notrates where nothing happened for a while and then in a matter of like 3 days at the end the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all dropped to zero. Then started running my medias and then bought my first fish and corals.

 

[pulpfiction1]

Keep testing until you see nitrates present

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk HD

 

[spyd]

I say throw in some flakes once in a while. I also used Dr. TIms - One and Only Nitrifying bacteria... Whether it did anything, who knows. I never had any signs of nitrates, nitrites or ammonia ever. But, I still waited 6 weeks before adding anything just to be on the safe side.

If you are running bio-pellets, start them up right away. This way you won't have to worry about what effects they have on your tank down the road.

 

[pulpfiction1]

Dr Tim's is hardly the one and only I myself have been using another product for years and it works fabulous once you have nitrates you're able to be adding what you like

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk HD

 

[jroovers]

Are you going to put in any live rock at all?  Maybe just a piece to at least seed the rest of the rock?

I thought the "shrimp method" had pretty much gone the way of the dodo... I would just put in a small piece of established live rock ideally that is aptasia etc. fee and let it sit for 3-4 weeks and if tests are okay, start with some fish.  Good tip re: starting the biopellets.

 

[spyd]

I should mention that I did also place 20lbs of cured live rock in my sump when I completed my cycle as well.

 

[jmonker]

I Haven't added anything to the aquarium,, All the rock is Dry Rock, Basically its my old-rock just cooked and bleached, and scrubbed.... Not sure what to do, Wait it out??? Maybe

 

[jmonker]

Ya im going to be starting bio-pellets as soon as possible, I like that idea big time,

 

[Neopimp]

Just do te shrimp thing... Nice and simple....lots of time to re aqua scape and until fish show up you can just tell people you are keeping pet rocks.... Helps if you give them names

 

[TORX]

So you have a perfectly clean set up and are wondering when the cycle is complete? The only way to know is if you have been testing the water parameters daily all along. Even with just an API kit to see the ammonia spike. There is no set time frame for a cycle to occur. 2-6 weeks at least, but maybe more or less.

There is a way to test if one has happened...something about adding ammonia until you see it raise on a test, then test until it returns to normal. There is a timeframe that it should take, someone posted the test a while ago. I will see if I can find it...feel free to chime in if anyone else knows off hand.

 

[jroovers]

Just do te shrimp thing... Nice and simple....lots of time to re aqua scape and until fish show up you can just tell people you are keeping pet rocks.... Helps if you give them names

Still don't understand the shrimp thing, why introduce nutrients for the sake of introducing nutrients?  I would seed your system with some established, cured live rock and nothing else, other than maybe a cup of sand from someone else's system and toss that in the display or sump to help.  The cycle will start, be patient, and test every few days.