Fastest way to cycle a tank?

[teeneythebetta]

I have a 10 gallon tank that I want to cycle. I have a female betta in it and I just feel that I should remove her and place her in my spare plastic 2.5 gal with a heater. I hate to remove her because she loves the space... But idk. xD

I know people use different methods to do a fish less cycle.. Which is the quickest? Links are appreciated :) I do not have access to used gravel or anything, I don't know any fish keepers. Is there a certain temperature that works best for cycling?

Any other tips are great.. Also would having my live plants in the tank while cycling slow it down or speed it up? Should I remove them?

Thanks!

[copperarabian]

Here's 3 ways that will help a lot. Feed the aquarium a little bit of food everyday(to make ammonia that the bacteria you need eats), buy bacteria supplement to speed up the growth of beneficial bacteria, add a few handfuls of gravel from a existing aquarium(don't let them dry out) as they have bacteria already on it. Lastly take the filter media out of a mature tank and put in your new aquarium,

That is the fastest way I know of to cycle an aquarium, just make sure to test the water or have a store test it for you. Many places(like petco and petsmart) will do it for free.

[teeneythebetta]

Thanks! Sorry if this is a stupid question... But is it beneficial at all to have the tank light on while cycling? Or is it completely irrelevant?

[copperarabian]

Originally Posted by teeneythebetta

Thanks! Sorry if this is a stupid question... But is it beneficial at all to have the tank light on while cycling? Or is it completely irrelevant?

It doesn't need light but that does help it to grow faster :)

I actually didn't know the answer and had to look it up, so totally not a stupid question XD

[MSG]

However I'm using as many shortcuts as I can or am aware of.

• Borrowed media from established tank.
• Running 5 filters on it.
• Took 80% of the dirty water from the female betta tanks before dumping out the rest.
• Added a cap of the filter boost stabilizer.
• Turned up the heater to 89 degrees.

There's nothing in the tank other than gravel, some decorations and the fake plants.

Once the ammonia & nitrates show up, I'll throw in some live floating plants.

I don't think lights would help with the cycling, but turning up the heat would

[RainbowSocks]

I cycled my aquarium with pure ammonia from Ace (no bubbles when shaken). Using ammonia was cleaner than adding shrimp/food/etc., and I was able to determine exactly how many drops to add to bring the ammonia level to 4-5ppm.

[teeneythebetta]

Thanks so much guys!! I'm going to turn my heater up some more. last night I transferred Teeney into the 2.5 gal and added fish food to the 10 gal. This morning I'm going to see how much ammonia is in thetank and go from there :)

[teeneythebetta]

Okay so I tested my ammonia this morning and it only measured .5 ppm. What?? I added 1 tablespoon of fish flakes, why is it so low??
How much more should I add?

[MSG]

Good move on transferring your fish. My betta didn't like it when I left him out in the sun by ACCIDENT & his tank reached 95 degrees.

The only tank I've measuring during cycling was the guppy tank. That was in the high 5 & 6 in ammonia. I was shocked the guppies didn't seem more stressed though.

For 2 days I did 50% change, didn't really change the numbers.

On the 5 or 6 day, the ammonia & nitrates dropped to .5 & less.

It's been that way since.

I can't give you an answer with the fish food other than make sure you're using your least favorite food.

I think the cheapest shrimp pellets would produce more ammonia.

[teeneythebetta]

I'm using some junky tetra min flakes I bought when I first got my betta.
I also have hikari algae wafers, you think those would be better than the flakes?