how long should fishless cycling take??...

yes, it is necessary. without cycling the tank, you'll be swept into very frequent water changes to keep the ammoina and nitrite under 0.5. ammoina and nitrite are very toxic to the fish, and can easily kill them even in small ammounts.

slowly adding fish can only be attempted in large, platned tanks that have enough volume and plants to keep the ammoina down long enough for the bacteria to start growing.
 
The downside to fishless cycling is the extra time that it tanks for the cycle to be completed. This is because of a lack of inoculum.

When you cycle a tank you are simply waiting for the natural bacteria and protists to colonize the tank.

When you put a fish in the tank there is always (no matter how careful you are not to use the stores water) millions of microscopic hitchhikers coming with it. In time these grow and balance out in numbers between species into a stable ecology.

In fishless cycling you usually do not have the "all at once" inoculation of the tank like when you add a fish. Instead you wait on spores of the bacteria to be transfered to your tank by air currents. This needless to say can take a long time especially in cold or very dry environments.

My recommendation-- go buy a plant from a very clean store and put it in your tank. Then see how long it tanks for the nitrates to start appear. I betcha it will be a lot sooner than otherwise. You might want to very slightly increase the amount of ammonia you add to your tank to make up for what the plant is eating up.
 
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I was wondering why it would rise without adding ammonia too?? It seemed weird to me as well. I find the test kit kind of hard to read. It has a colour for 4.0 ppm and the next is for 8.0 ppm. I am trying to get it just above the 4 colour...but..maybe it is at 6 and has stalled out?

thanks, Wendy
 
Keeping it in the 3-4ppm range is fine for most stocking.... I had rather it be alittle less than 4 than over just because of the jump from 4 to 8ppm on the color cards making it hard to be sure what it is just to be on the safe side.
 
I just cycled a 40 gallon tank. It took about 6 1/2 weeks. Felt like an eternity. I believe that Ammonia was cycling around 2-3 weeks, but the next step (Nitrate cycling) took much longer.

You shouldn't be doing water changes, because that will remove the Nitrates (and thus increase the length of time it takes for Nitrate-eating bacteria to show up in numbers).

Some things that might help the cycle:

- If you can seed your tank, that will reduce the time drastically
- Turn the tank lights off. The bacteria supposedly love the nightlife.
- Add a crushed flake of fish food to the tank. This supposedly gives bacteria some needed nutrients.
- Increase the temperature in the tank. The bacteria like it hot.
- Add a bubble wand. Bacteria flourish in an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Here are some good threads on the fishless cycle:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88796

Good luck.
 
What ammonia did you use....you should have the beginning traces of nitrites by now...
 
did you seed the bacteria?
(add some established filter media or gravel to the tank?)
 
no, I have no other tanks to get the seed from...I did, just today crush a tad of fish food to put in the tank, I also discovered I need to keep the light off...the kids like it on because of the aerator and the shark thingy they like to watch, but, we will keep it off for now....

Wendy
 
rbishop said:
What ammonia did you use....you should have the beginning traces of nitrites by now...
Click to expand...

I believe that the water changes have been reducing the Nitrites, and thus reducing the amount of Nitrite-eating bacteria (which convert the Nitrites to Nitrates).
 
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