# how to speed up cycling in new tank?



## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

brook392 said:


> anyone knows how to cycle new tank pretty fast?, I need my new tank to be ready as soon as possible. Adding water from the old matured tank would help cycling the new one? and how long would it take? I know, the new tank should be cycled for at least few weeks, but I am trying to figure out how to do this quick


Do you have cycled media from your other tank?


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## MrFishTank5372 (Dec 18, 2015)

Don't know how quick, but you can seed the new filter with media from a matured tank. Let nature run its course, patience is key in this hobby.


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

Use a product like Tetra SafeStart or API QuickStart. They contain nitrifying bacteria and basically cycle the tank almost instantly.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Set up the new filter on an established tank for several days (or longer). Use water from an old tank. Use "bacteria in a bottle" to help establish colony of new bacteria in filter.



From my experience, moving an established HOB from a tank to a new one, using the same tank water into a new tank can still cause the new tank to go through a cycle. So although doing those steps *may* help, you may still need to wait for the tank to cycle. (this prior to getting the bottled bacteria, too...)


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Adding a source of Nitrospira species of bacteria will cycle the tank. 

If you have a healthy tank that can spare some media, share a bit. Do not take so much that the donor tank has any problems. 

Nitrospira is available bottled. Make sure you get Nitrospira, do not waste money on anything else. 
Dr. Tim's One and Only, and Tetra Safe Start are 2 products that have the right species. 

The more bacteria you can add then the larger a population of fish or shrimp you can add. 
If you start with just a small bacteria population you can use the fishless cycle to grow more bacteria. This will take time. 
If you started with no bacteria, the fishless cycle would take 3 weeks. 
If you start with a lot of bacteria, the fishless cycle will take just a few days, just long enough to confirm that they are alive and doing their job. 

Thriving plants will remove a lot of ammonia, but if you are new to planted tanks it may not be smart to depend on plants only. Make sure there is a good population of bacteria. 

Here is the fishless cycle:
Cycle: To grow the beneficial bacteria that remove ammonia and nitrite from the aquarium.

Fish-In Cycle: To expose fish to toxins while using them as the source of ammonia to grow nitrogen cycle bacteria. Exposure to ammonia burns the gills and other soft tissue, stresses the fish and lowers their immunity. Exposure to nitrite makes the blood unable to carry oxygen. Research methemoglobinemia for details. 

Fishless Cycle: The safe way to grow more bacteria, faster, in an aquarium, pond or riparium. 

The method I give here was developed by 2 scientists who wanted to quickly grow enough bacteria to fully stock a tank all at one time, with no plants helping, and overstock it as is common with Rift Lake Cichlid tanks. 

1a) Set up the tank and all the equipment. You can plant if you want. Include the proper dose of dechlorinator with the water. 
Optimum water chemistry:
GH and KH above 3 German degrees of hardness. A lot harder is just fine. 
pH above 7, and into the mid 8s is just fine. (7.5-8 seems to be optimum)
Temperature in the upper 70s F (mid 20s C) is good. Higher (to 95*F or about 35*C) is OK if the water is well aerated. 
A trace of other minerals may help. Usually this comes in with the water, but if you have a pinch of KH2PO4, and trace elements like CSM+B that may be helpful. 
High oxygen level. Make sure the filter and power heads are running well. Plenty of water circulation. 
No toxins in the tank. If you washed the tank, or any part of the system with any sort of cleanser, soap, detergent, bleach or anything else make sure it is well rinsed. Do not put your hands in the tank when you are wearing any sort of cosmetics, perfume or hand lotion. No fish medicines of any sort. 
A trace of salt (sodium chloride) is OK, but not required. 
This method of growing bacteria will work in a marine system, too. The species of bacteria are different. 

1b) Optional: Add any source of the bacteria that you are growing to seed the tank. Cycled media from a healthy tank is good. Decor or some gravel from a cycled tank is OK. Live plants or plastic are OK. I have even heard of the right bacteria growing in the bio film found on driftwood. (So if you have been soaking some driftwood in preparation to adding it to the tank, go ahead and put it into the tank) Bottled bacteria is great, but only if it contains Nitrospira species of bacteria. Read the label and do not waste your money on anything else. 
At the time this was written the right species could be found in: 
Dr. Tims One and Only
Tetra Safe Start
Microbe Lift Nite Out II
...and perhaps others. 
You do not have to jump start the cycle. The right species of bacteria are all around, and will find the tank pretty fast. 

2) Add ammonia until the test reads 5 ppm. This ammonia is the cheapest you can find. No surfactants, no perfumes. Read the fine print. This is often found at discount stores like Dollar Tree, or hardware stores like Ace. You could also use a dead shrimp form the grocery store, or fish food. Protein breaks down to become ammonia. You do not have good control over the ammonia level, though. 
Some substrates release ammonia when they are submerged for the first time. Monitor the level and do enough water changes to keep the ammonia at the levels detailed below. 

3) Test daily. For the first few days not much will happen, but the bacteria that remove ammonia are getting started. Finally the ammonia starts to drop. Add a little more, once a day, to test 5 ppm. 

4) Test for nitrite. A day or so after the ammonia starts to drop the nitrite will show up. When it does allow the ammonia to drop to 3 ppm. 

5) Test daily. Add ammonia to 3 ppm once a day. If the nitrite or ammonia go to 5 ppm do a water change to get these lower. The ammonia removing species and the nitrite removing species (Nitrospira) do not do well when the ammonia or nitrite are over 5 ppm. 

6) When the ammonia and nitrite both hit zero 24 hours after you have added the ammonia the cycle is done. You can challenge the bacteria by adding a bit more than 3 ppm ammonia, and it should be able to handle that, too, within 24 hours. 

7) Now test the nitrate. Probably sky high! 
Do as big a water change as needed to lower the nitrate until it is safe for fish. Certainly well under 20, and a lot lower is better. This may call for more than one water change, and up to 100% water change is not a problem. Remember the dechlor!
If you will be stocking right away (within 24 hours) no need to add more ammonia. If stocking will be delayed keep feeding the bacteria by adding ammonia to 3 ppm once a day. You will need to do another water change right before adding the fish.
__________________________

Helpful hints:

A) You can run a fishless cycle in a bucket to grow bacteria on almost any filter media like bio balls, sponges, ceramic bio noodles, lava rock or Matala mats. Simply set up any sort of water circulation such as a fountain pump or air bubbler and add the media to the bucket. Follow the directions for the fishless cycle. When the cycle is done add the media to the filter. I have run a canister filter in a bucket and done the fishless cycle.

B) The nitrogen cycle bacteria will live under a wide range of conditions and bounce back from minor set backs. By following the set up suggestions in part 1a) you are setting up optimum conditions for fastest reproduction and growth.
GH and KH can be as low as 1 degree, but watch it! These bacteria may use the carbon in carbonates, and if it is all used up (KH = 0) the bacteria may die off. They use the carbon from CO2, and this is generally pretty low in water, but can be replenished from the air and from carbonates. Keep the carbonates up to keep the pH up, too. 
pH as low as 6.5 is OK, but by 6.0 the bacteria are not going to be doing very well. They are still there, and will recover pretty well when conditions get better. To grow them at optimum rates, keep the pH on the alkaline side of neutral. 
Temperature almost to freezing is OK, but they must not freeze, and they are not very active at all. They do survive in a pond, but they are slow to warm up and get going in the spring. This is where you might need to grow some in a bucket in a warm place and supplement the pond population. Too warm is not good, either. Tropical or room temperature tank temperatures are best. (68 to 85*F or 20 to 28*C)
Moderate oxygen can be tolerated for a while. However, to remove lots of ammonia and nitrite these bacteria must have oxygen. They turn one into the other by adding oxygen. If you must stop running the filter for an hour or so, no problem. If longer, remove the media and keep it where it will get more oxygen. 
Once the bacteria are established they can tolerate some fish medicines. This is because they live in a complex film called Bio film on all the surfaces in the filter and the tank. Medicines do not enter the bio film well. 
These bacteria do not need to live under water. They do just fine in a humid location. They live in healthy garden soil, as well as wet locations. 

C) Planted tanks may not tolerate 3 ppm or 5 ppm ammonia. It is possible to cycle the tank at lower levels of ammonia so the plants do not get ammonia burn. Add ammonia to only 1 ppm, but test twice a day, and add ammonia as needed to keep it at 1 ppm. The plants are also part of the bio filter, and you may be able to add the fish sooner, if the plants are thriving. 1 ppm twice a day will grow almost as much bacteria as 3 ppm once a day.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

brook392;9176633 said:


> but I am trying to figure out how to do this quick


Diana's advice is sound..
Just for a practical "just did it" approach this is what I did for a fish included cycle.

Added mulm and about 3 bunches of stem plants from a well aged aquarium.
After being filled for 2 days (after a day or 2 of initial settling) added my "canaries" 2 guppies.








Added Prime every day..
after a few days added more plants and 10 more guppies.. 
Snails came along for a ride on the first plants
Didn't even bother w/ ammonia measurements. Just waited for the nitrites to build then nitrates..

As expected nitrites started to spike. Then got an algae bloom on the tank walls and some heavy on the stem plants.
Nitrites disappeared. Nitrates stared appearing.
all the while ran about 3000 lumens of light.

Finally cut down lighting to slow/stop the algae.
Will have to discard many of the stem plants due to very heavy damage from the algae..

Not unexpected..

didn't lose a single fish nor had any gasping events..

.Added 5 tetras and 2 extremely skiddish parrot cichlids on day 7 or approx.

Not really recommended but the point is cycles can be done fast as long as one puts in a heavy bio load from a well established tank.

last thing.. ran the temp at 78-ish for most of the duration but did spike it up to 80-84 for a day after about the first 6 days..

MAJOR point monitor, old tank waste,plants, and Prime..

3 weeks later.









*YMMV*


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## brook392 (Feb 6, 2016)

Thank You All for tips and info


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## Panw (Jan 20, 2016)

Diana said:


> Adding a source of Nitrospira species of bacteria will cycle the tank.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Wow..... This is the best explanation I've ever read about tank cycle.
Thank you


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

Zoidburg said:


> Set up the new filter on an established tank for several days (or longer). Use water from an old tank. Use "bacteria in a bottle" to help establish colony of new bacteria in filter.
> 
> 
> 
> From my experience, moving an established HOB from a tank to a new one, using the same tank water into a new tank can still cause the new tank to go through a cycle. So although doing those steps *may* help, you may still need to wait for the tank to cycle. (this prior to getting the bottled bacteria, too...)


I have read, not to be intentionally contradictory, that the water is irrelevant as most of the bacteria etc of a healthy tank are not in the water but on the substrate and filter and ornaments or plants etc etc.
Seems better served to start out with fresh clean water if old grungy water does nothing beneficial.
I'm sure others more knowledgeable than myself can correct this if I am incorrect?
Totally agree with adding of bacteria however.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Established bacteria are indeed growing on surfaces, not drifting in the water. 
One proof of this is that I have done 100% water changes with no problems at all. Ammonia and nitrite stay at 0ppm, and nitrate continues to climb in its normal manner after the reset. 

While it is not impossible to add a small population of nitrifying bacteria by sharing the water, the population is very small. Won't hurt the donor tank, but may not help the new tank by much, either. Much more bacteria is shared by sharing media, or anything else that the bacteria are growing on. 

Mulm may have a reasonable population of decomposer organisms. These are also needed in an aquarium, so it is not a waste to add these materials, but since these bacteria etc will come in from other sources, too, I do not usually go to any great lengths to share mulm from one tank to another. 

A really good way to jump start a tank, if you already have an established tank is to share filter media. One of the concerns is that if you remove too much filter media from a tank with fish or other livestock then there will not be enough bacteria to keep the ammonia under control in the donor tank. 

Temporarily running a new filter on an old tank can get a small population going in this new filter. But think! If you have enough bacteria in an established tank and you add another place for the bacteria to live, you are not actually_ increasing_ the bacteria population. You are simply encouraging it to grow on more surfaces. Then you remove the new filter, you are removing that bacteria, too. This drops the population below optimum in the donor tank. If you remove it soon (just run it for a week or two) this will not cause problems for the established tank, but the new bacteria will not be a very big population. Also, Nitrospira (the nitrite oxidizing species) are slow growing. The new filter might grow a pretty reasonable population of ammonia oxidizing organisms, but a smaller population of Nitrospira. 
Much better is to swap some media. The new filter will get a small amount of fully established media, with balanced populations of each type of bacteria, and the old filter gets some new media. 
I have removed up to 25% of the established media from a well cycled tank, and it is just fine. There are plenty of other places that the bacteria grow on, so that 25% of the filter media might actually be about 1/8 of the bacteria. 

All these methods are supplying a small population of bacteria. A good way to jump start a population, then grow it larger with the fishless cycle. 
Or, if you have several tanks, then get a small donation from each tank. I have fully cycled a new tank this way.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

brook392 said:


> anyone knows how to cycle new tank pretty fast?, I need my new tank to be ready as soon as possible. Adding water from the old matured tank would help cycling the new one? and how long would it take? I know, the new tank should be cycled for at least few weeks, but I am trying to figure out how to do this quick


 You are in my view, in the wrong hobby.
Thing's that happen quickly in the aquarium are usually bad thing's.It is.. an opinion that I agree 100% with.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

It's not about moving bacteria from an established aquarium to a new aquarium via using water, but more along the lines that water from an established aquarium may be better than straight tap water - in some cases. But of course, this can all depend on the GH/KH and TDS of the water and what the new inhabitants require.



Of course, if one is getting into all that, then they might already have the necessary supplies to raise or lower those accordingly.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

All I can say is that I cycled a 55gal in a week and 1/2 by transferring mulm/water/plants...
Never touched any media (was tempted to but thought what the heck..)



> Nitrifying bacteria grow on every solid surface in the aquarium, including gravel, glass, aquatic plants, decorations and filter media. Indeed, most filters contain some type of biomedia designed to provide plenty of surface area for the growth of helpful bacteria. So, it’s best to take steps to preserve the bacteria on this media when possible.


Probably would have been faster w/ stealing some media....

and in case it wasn't clear.. wasn't about "water".... 



> Nitrifying bacteria works most efficiently when it's built up into a biofilm that's established on a hard surface or filter media





> Perhaps some time someone (maybe me!) will to do an experiment with two containers, one seeded with just a mature filter sponge, and one seeded with the detritus of post-canister cleaning. Feed them both the same and see which one "jump-starts" quicker (and how high the nitrates get!). Simply as a hypothesis, I would think that the mulm-seeding would work faster, although nitrate buildup would be something to keep in check - the people I've seen advocate this method are starting heavily-planted aquariums this way, and if you're going to be dosing nitrate into the water column anyhow, it doesn't hurt to have a whole lot of it from mulm. I could see the organics becoming a problem, though.


super seeded cycling success? ? Cichlid-Forum

I currently can't find a thing o the composition of mulm. The fact it is "clumpy" really leads me to believe a lot of "sticky" bacteria..

https://translate.google.com/transl...php/TechnikFilter/Filterbakterien&prev=search


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