Cycling a Tank in Record Time
 

Well,

I just wanted to let you know tha cycling need not take forever. I am a very impatient person by nature and so did everything I could to speed up the cycling process - I didn't want to wait another 4 weeks like with my last tank.

I cycled a 30g tank in 8 days, here's how:

I had been planning on geting another tank for a while however hadn't seen one that I fancied at a price that I could afford. In preparation I bought a filter (I knew roughly what size of tank I was looking for) and ran it in my existing tank alongside my existing filter. It ran in the existing tank for a little under a fortnight.

I also added more gravel to my existing tank than I otherwise would have had in it, a little bit at a time, every few days. This allows me to remove a fair chunk of gravel from the existing tank when the new one arrives, but also means that a whole whack of gravel isn't introduced to the existing tank at once, which could end up starting a mini-cycle and defeat the entire purpose.

When the tank arrived I put in gravel mainly from the existing tank, and a little from the bag, I put in 2 ornaments from the existing tank and I put the filter which had been running in the existing tank for a fortnight into the new tank.

I fed the tank and monitored parameters. This new tank was basically the old tank, but with new water and new walls. I did not see a great spike in ammonia, or a great spike in nitrite, but it did appear. Nitrates appeared and after 8 days ammonia and nitrite are 0.

Well, this was just a wee story for anyone thinking of buying a new tank (the only issue is that you must already have a tank) and who doesn't want to wait too long before they can add fish, but who also doesnt want to risk the lives of their fish by putting them into an uncycled tank.

Hope this is helpful to somebody.

I cycled my tank in 2 days.

:( - gutted!

What did you do in order to make it cycle so quickly? I'm sure we'd all appreciate you sharing so we can do the same!

Bio-spira

Ahh! I still win! LOL

Only kidding AOA, but I meant that this was without using any additives like Cycle or BioSpira, althoguh I have heard BioSpira is good.

BioSpira is used for adding new fish, water changes, and new tanks. It is supposed to INSTANTLY make it safe for hardy fish and within 24 hours make it a fish safe fully-cycled tank. I have heard of one of my friends using a filter and gravel from another tank and it being completely cycled in 4 days.... But still, he probably took to big of a risk trying it. I'll say this article works for me.

Almost forgot.... THE SUSPENCE IS KILLING ME!!!! :D I can't wait for my other tank to be cycled. Its to big for BioSpira.

Is this the 'ocean' that you're building in your back garden? Or another tank AOA?

The 'ocean' was drained yesterday. This is a 125g tank with a 100g sump.

Good luck with it!