Methods for Speeding Up Cycling?

DGalt

DGalt

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Jun 1, 2008
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Connecticut
So I just rescaped my tank with ADA aquasoil. Initially I thought I would be fine (and told that, as long as I kept up with the water changes, I would be fine) since I was keeping my old cycled filter on the tank, so there would be no need for me to rehouse my fish somewhere.

Well that was all fine and dandy until I needed to remove my old filter. For whatever reason (still haven't figured it out) it was contributing to this immense cloudiness in the tank. I replaced it (it was an AC 50) with an Eheim 2213, and the cloudiness issues have gone away, but now I'm left with an uncycled tank and the aquasoil kicking out high levels of ammonia. :wall:

I'm going to rehouse my fish in a 10 gallon I have lying around (hopefully they'll all be ok in there), but I'm lacking on space here at school so I need to get the tank to cycle as quickly as possible.

I know there are commercial items out there that supposedly speed up the cycling process. Do any of these actually work? What other things can I do to speed up the process?

If it matters, it's a 15 gallon tank. pH is around 6.8, ammonia levels are at 1.0ppm (:shakehead:). I'm starting to see some nitrites, but not much.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks :grinyes:
 
was the fact that it is a HOB that was causing the cloudiness or was it because of the filter media itself? If i were you I would rinse out hte old filter material the best you can in tank water (as always) and then find some way to cram all of the stuff from the aquaclear into the canister and hope it doesnt cloud.
 
Like I said, I have yet to figure out what exactly about the HOB was causing the cloudiness. As far as I could tell the outflow of the HOB wasn't hitting the substrate in any way, so as far as I can tell it wasn't an issue of it stirring up the substrate.

The chances are probably slim that something in the sponge or ceramic cylinder things (bio media) in the AC 50 was causing the problem, but I can't rule it out. i cleaned the filter several times, including the media, and changed its position in the tank several times and every time I put in back on the tank the cloudiness came back. All I know is it has gone away since setting up the Eheim, so I'd rather not chance fate. :uhoh:
 
Put both filters on the tank, and leave them running. Slowly remove media from the established filter until there isn't any media left, then remove the old filter all together!

When you remove pieces of the old filter, you take out some BB, logical conclusion is that the BB has to be replaced and grow on the other filter!

If you have a sponge, cut strips off of the sponge per week (or whenever a good time period is)
If you have the ceramic tubes, then remove a few of those every now and then.

Is it so cloudy that the fish can't live in the tank?
I'd keep them in there (with both filters) if the conditions let them.

Or you could put the old filter media in the canister (or will that even work? Not experienced with them)
 
fritzyme and the new named dr. tims aquatics
fritzzyme7.jpg
i have used it before and it dose work not quite as fast as bio spira now called dr. tims,











http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/productguide/H2O-PURE_Products/H2O-PURE_Products.html
 
I would just save the few bucks and just seed the new canister filter with your old HOB filter. Just let the water be cloudy and seed the filter with the methods mentioned above. If you already rehoused your fish, it doesn't really matter if the water is cloudy or not. Plus if you run both filters, chances are the canister should clean up the cloudy mess the HOB produces.
 
Supposedly higher temps 80+ make the good bacteria grow quicker... if you have soft water this can slow down the bacteria needed for cycling getting established too.

Warm hard water will get you cycled slightly quicker than soft cold water... or so I've read.
 
If your old filter has been off then tank for more than a few hours there's probably no bacteria stil alive in it. It is also unknown if there is something in that filter which is causing the cloudiness.

I have used Cycle and Stability bottled bacteria. I made sure they were realy fresh with use by dates about 2 years away, and I refrigerate them. When I have to Kickstart a tank I pour a couple capfuls or whatever is reccomended for my tank size into a couple litres of dechlorinated water and soak the filter media in it for an hour or so. Then I pour that water into the tank and put the media in the filter and put the filter on the tank. Very fast cycle. Any ammonia shows up, I dose the tank again.

I've had to do this several times with my quarantine tank and it works every time.

Live plants probably help too. I have lots of those.
 
bacteria additives usually dont work. they need to be refrigerated constantly, and stores and shippers rarely, if ever, refrigerate any of them (besides bio-spira, which was discontinued).

if you have another tank, squeezing the filter media in the new tank's water is probably one of the best ways to move bacteria over short of moving media. plus, this method ensures that bacteria migrate to your new filter media rather than staying in the old media.

are you sure it was your filter contributing to the cloudiness and not a bacterial bloom from the high levels of ammonia?
 
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