How to cycle faster
- Thread starter Hungriee
- Start date
Find someone who has an clean established tank and have them give you some filter drippings. Or if you want to have plants in your tank buy some plants and put them in now. Both will drastically speed up the process.
Your ammonia is not high enough. You need to keep it up to around 2 or 3 ppm until your nitrites rise. You should be well into your nitrite spike by now.
Ummmm, any amount of ammonia will cause a tank to cycle, even small amounts. Now in a fishless cycle, it sure won't support a huge bio-load, but this is a small tank, should be fine as is.
Add a little bit of ammonia if possible though, don't want the bacteria to starve.
With Nitrates of 5ppm though, you may be cycled.
Ok. I guess we need more info. Did you use anything to start the cycle. Has your ammonia and nitrites been high, and have now fallen? Or has your ammonia always been low, and have you not had any nitrites yet?
That is the best way to do it. The way I do it is to run a new filter in an established tank for a few weeks.
I did a fish cycle in 6 days with my 3.5 gal, and instantly with my new 20 gal by adding plants, gravel, and filter media from established tanks to the new one.
