cycling a 55 questions

[bigbrad73]

Alright I plan on getting my 55 gallon tomorrow. question is do I do the fishless cycle with or without plants. I plan on it having plants, wood, and rocks in it do I need to have everything in it when I start the fishless cycling?

[Algenco]

Do it without the plants

[bigbrad73]

so just the rocks and the wood. no plants? when to introduce the plants?

[Algenco]

put the plants in after it has cycled

[bigbrad73]

how long should it take to do a fishless cycle in a 55 gallon tank

[ErikFromNJ]

Without seeding the filter or using any BB'd substrate....4-8 weeks

[Wild Turkey]

without doing anything, anywhere from 1 to 12 weeks.
Seen both ends of that spectrum on this site actually.
If you can get some used filter media from a friends tank, and put that into your filter you can skip the whole cycling process pretty much. Add fish the same day.
Getting a bacteria culture can be almost as good, but results vary. Add fish the same day you add the bacteria with this as well.
Ones ive seen work so far are
Tetra start safe
API stress zyme
Big Als bio-support (from bigalsoneline.com, same formula as stress zyme but cheaper.)

Good luck! You made the right decision :D

[bigbrad73]

So your saying if I throw in the old carbon filter out of my 10 gallon tank, I don't have to do fishless? I just put the whole filter in the middle of the botton of the tank?

[Sharon]

If you're not planning on running the 10gal. just run that filter alongside the new filter in the 55gal...

[bigbrad73]

I am planning on keeping the 10 up and running but I do have another filter I can put on it while I move it for a while.

[Heliwyr]

What you could also do is take some bio-filter media meant to go in your 55's filter and put it in the 10g for a week. Should at least grow enough bacteria on it to help seed the culture. The point of doing this is bacteria that are already established are supposed to multiply faster than bacteria that are just getting started.

[bushwhacker]

changing the filters on the 10 would probably throw it into a mini cycle.. you can take the media out of the 10 and sqeeze it all over the new media in the 55 and get a good jump on your cycle.. then either use small amounts of ammonia or a few zebra danios to keep it fed.... then there is the silent cycle using plants but its gonna take a boatload of fast growing stem or floating plants for a 55

[Wild Turkey]

I am planning on keeping the 10 up and running but I do have another filter I can put on it while I move it for a while.

The problem is that its charcoal, so you cant just cut it in half and split it up, otherwise that would be easiest. But, just cutting of a little corner of the pouch (at the top) and placing that in the new tank's filter will start the bacteria growing and speed up the fishless, or fish cycle process.

As for the charcoal,

Charcoal absorbs everything from the water,
After about 3 weeks, the charcoal becomes inactive and can leak the impurities it has removed back into the aquarium, which can cause disease.

For that reason, i suggest stuffing some regular media in the filter with the charcoal (sponge media, floss, biomax, whatever you like) and run the filter for 2-3 weeks, then remove the charcoal. After that, if you still want to run charcoal regularly (most opt not to) you replace the charcoal every month but leave the other media. Obviously, you need some type of media for your filter on the larger tank if you are only running charcoal as well.

Once the charcoal gets wet, the 3 weeks has begun.

Silent cycle is 99% BS in my opinion. If you want more info on why, just ask. It is a lot of typing though lol