# Cycling the tank



## blbig50

Hey, is there any way to speed up the cycling, i thought i seen somewhere that other fish can help???? Thanks for the input!


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## gtc

If you want, you can go to your lfs and buy "cycle", what it does is it releases bf to your water to help speed up your cycling but adding fish is a good way too..

If you want, you can go to your lfs and buy "cycle", what it does is it releases bb to your water to help speed up your cycling but adding fish is a good way too..


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## upgradepc

tetra safestart worked for me. you can skip the cycling process by adding filter media from an established tank.


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## blbig50

Thanks guys... all info is appreciated!


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## shoal king

through some feeders in there to speed it up also


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## lovemyreds

i used SEACHEM stability to help the cycling process worked great


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## Dr. Giggles

Transferring this to Water chemistry







technically throwing fish in does not speed up a cycle, it only starts it. Doesnt matter how much fish you throw in. if you add too much the cycle will just last forever. As mentioned TetraSafe and if you can find it Bio Spira are the only products I know that is not BS in a bottle. The only other thing that will speed up a cycle is adding bio media to your filter from another established tank.


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## blbig50

Thanks guys, I will definitely get one of them!


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## No0dles

:edit: im retarted i know why safestart never worked for me!


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## Piranha Dan

The fastest way to cycle is to get used media from another tank or your LFS, put it in the filter, turn it on, and add fish. I did this when I upgraded from a 29 to a 120 and it worked great. Filled the 120, added gravel/plants/driftwood, put in a heater, let the water warm up overnight, then the next day I moved the filter and fish. Worked great, no ammonia spike or anything.


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## Slay

yeah, i always do that and have had no problems. i have many emperor 400's, so i just take some of the used filter pads from a running filter and throw them in the filter on the new tank and let it run for a day or 2. sometimes i use some of the gravel from the old tank too.


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## Jared Prentice

Yeah, keep your filters running 24/7 depending on the size of your tank, throw in some goldfish and live bacteria.

You could also go to your local pet shop and see if the owner is kind enough to give you or sell you some of his used filter sponge from his installations, that´ll contain lots of live bacteria and will really speed up the process.

Good luck,
Jose


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## No0dles

dont throw in goldfish AND live bacteria! your more than likely gonna over due it and cause it to take even longer to finish cycling. i'd just throw in some live bacteria and wait it out


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## the_w8

^^^^ agree with the above...DO NOT throw in goldfish as they are shitfish and will prolong it a bit.


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## the_w8

I think bio-spira has changed to fritz-zyme or something like that.


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## No0dles

no bio-spira was bought by the parent company of tetra after marineland/tetra revamped the bio-spira to not having to be refrigerated and lasting longer on the shelf and now they're selling it as tetra safe start. however the saltwater bio-spira is still available.

for me it worked fine one of my 55's the other one it didnt which i was bitching about earlier but that was because im a complete retard! so anyways it definitely works but you still have to wait for the cycle which can take anywhere from 3-8weeks mine took 26days with tetra safe start to completely be done but what safe start does is allows you to add fish during that cycling phase also.

i recommend saving your money and just waiting ~30days. every tank i ever set up from a 55-125G took 30-40days total never more than that (fishless cycle that is)


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## the_w8

Yea ur Right, my bad....I seen that tetra replaced bio spira with safestart....I"ve done a fishless cycle with my old 180 that I sold and my 125. My 180 took me 41 days to cycle and the 180 was around 52 I think. Wasn't all that bad as I had my 180 sitting in my old apartment at the time and I didn't get completely moved in until it was done cycling so it really wasn't that bad.

I will be moving in a bit and I think I may try that safestart just for the hell of it cause then I can get my manny in the 125 faster and move the rest of the tanks....Yaaaayyy I love moving.


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## His Majesty

there are some supplements you can buy to add to the water for it to speed up the process a little.
Using cheap live fish like goldfish or guppies help aswell

there is another route which skips it all and thats to buy pre made water from your lfs. its not as expensive as you might think.
at my lfs they will make pre cycled water for you and it can be bought for 50p per 4 gallons. slightly more expensive for saltwater though as you have to take into account the salt obviously.
however i would only buy water from an lfs that i trust and know what they are doing.

however in my own opinion i beleive its just better to let your tank cycle for the month. i know it can be frustrating. but it allows you to keep control of whats going on and it helps you understand the process and setup a better tank for your fish


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## the_w8

I definitely wouldn't buy or waste my time putting in a fish to help aid the cycle. I've done the fish one in the past on smaller tanks and it never really helped all that much. I wouldn't buy pre-cycled water either as I know it won't take too long to recycle the tank. The move i will be doing is like 20 mins so I'll leave about 3-4" of water in the tank to keep the substrate wet and my media should be fine. i don't forsee the tank really going through a precycle as i have plenty of media and I can always use other media from the other tanks too.


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## blbig50

Doing a water change to get rid of the ammonia from the cheap ass goldfish. I bought 20, and I only have 8 still living. The ammonia was through the roof, so I have been trying to lower it, right now its at .5 so if I can get it down after this last water change, Im gonna drip and put them in, thanks a lot for the input everybody!


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## NexExAfar

i feel stupid asking but what is bio media?


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## RhomZilla

NexExAfar said:


> i feel stupid asking but what is bio media?


Bio media can be considered a wide range of objects that bacteria can attach itself to (ie; substrate such as gravel, rocks, decors, bio-balls, sponges in your filters, etc). For most, first thing that comes to mind is the little ceramic thingys in power filters.


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