How lond should the nitrogen cycle be?

[Typ]

Im using the fish cycle. How long should it take to complete? I'm eager to get new fish. Oh and my size tank is 10g. Thank you all!

[Lady Hobbs]

Depends on how many fish. If you are using about 3, that's all you need to start a cycle. More than that it's rough. Ammonia gets too high and fish die without constantly changing the water to keep them alive. But changing the water also slows the cycling so it's a real pain to say the least.

If you can get some stress zyme it will help a bit. If you have a friend that have a tank, using some of their gravel in a nylon sock and using an dirty filter they may have will help. Without "seeding" with bacteria from other sources, it could take a month.

Feed fish very little and only about every 3 days will help keep the ammonia down. Test kits are very important right now. Ammonia and nitrites need to be checked daily.

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[Glasstapper]

Well, I had done a fish cycle with 10 bleeding heart tetras on a 45 gallon tank. I did not have access to anyone's media, so I had to just start from scratch. My total cycle time took me 7 weeks, but I was doing a lot of water changes to keep the ammonia under 3.0 (to keep my fish alive), and I was siphoning the gravel with those water changes (which you're definitely NOT supposed to do during a cycle - only after the cycle is complete) so as soon as I stopped the siphoning, my cycle continued on.

Most places I've read say 6-8 weeks seems to be the average. What kind of fish are you using to cycle and how many of them? What are you current water readings?

[jeffs99dime]

the cycle is different for everyone. lots of factors play a part it it

[Lady Hobbs]

Softened water for one! The harder the water the harder to cycle. Warmer temps will help that bacteria along as well as aerating the water as bacteria grows faster with more oxygen. The amount of fish. Feeding too much. yadda, yadda, yadda :)

Anyway you look at it, it's a bummer.