how lond did it take you to do a fishless cycle

I cycled my 10 gal planted in 40 days, that includes once when I totally reaquascaped in the middle of the cycle.

I dont know about lights, but I've heard that a warmer temperature can speed it up and also that if you keep the water level below the filter so that the water coming out of the filter splashes a little and agitates the water, that may help. Or use bubble stones to agitate it.

HTH

I read somewhere the answer is 38

I can't recall where I read this, but some place said it will take about 38 days to complete the establishment of the cycle. The people who I have asked about it have reported 39 or occasionally 36. Using established media or adding live plants of course shortens that considerably.

I don't recall how long it took in my first tank, I've lost those records.

There is no "right" answer to this question. Certainly, if 60 days went by and you still had no nitrites/ates in this aquarium then things wouldn't be working right but I've heard anywhere from 25-45 days for a fishless cycle.

My, myself...I didn't fishless cycle my first aquariums as that wasn't the popular thing to do. Well, to be honest - it wasn't even heard of then.

But my aquariums which were setup after 1992 were indeed fishless cycled. It usually takes me 30-35 days to cycle my aquariums. Thats an average.

Real fishless cycling for me has run from just over two weeks to just over 4 weeks.

Pseudo fishless cycling (where I use filters which been operating on mature tanks for several weeks up to months, then move them to the new tank and challenge them with ammonia as in real fishless) has taken from <1 day up to 4-6 days.

I'm at alittle over a month of fishless cycling with nothing to jump start it. I'm seeing some movement in all 3 numbers now so hopefully only a week or two to go. If you can seed a tank with filter media or substrait I've read it can half the time it takes to cycle a tank.
-Neo SIthlord

I fishless cycled 2 of my larger tanks. My 58g cycled in 12days but i had added some used filter media and plants. My 90g cycled in 32 days, i didn't add any filter media and i added too much ammonia to start with so i kind of screwed up. I did some water changes and brought the levels down and it finished in a couple days. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if i didn't add so much ammonia(it was WAY off the charts).

SO my tips to you is

- raise the temp
-add used filter media or gravel
-add soem plants if you can
-dont' add too much ammonia, if you find your level not coming down after a long time do a water change and re test.

My 55g fishless cycled completely within two weeks. My 29g cycled completely in just under a week (new filter but I had the existing substrate from the person I got the tank from).

I had the temp raised to around...85 ish then. It was midsummer so it was running warm anyway....

My 115 took 5 weeks, Just added fish yesterday.