Eskielvr

I did another water change on Monday, and yesterday I checked the Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels and they were all 0. It seems like it's taking forever for Spartacus's tank to cycle, and treating him with meds and using Stress Zyme probably didn't help any. So, out of desperation, I got a little creative. I grabbed some filter media floss, the kind you use to from Whisper that you make yourself, you know, put the carbon in, stick the frame inside and close it. I did that only I filled it with a small handful of gravel from my 20 gallon. I'm hoping I got enough bacteria from the gravel to help jump start Spartacus's tank cycle.

About how long do you think it will take to cycle now? I hope I got enough bacteria from it.

Timesdragonfly

I understand your frustration. If you could use a little bit of the filter media from your 29 gallon, that would help more than the gravel. I cycled my five gallon using filter media to seed the tank and it took about three weeks.

Eskielvr

There's no bacteria on my filter media, it's been out of the tank for a while when I was treating the tank with Tetracycline. Plus, I had been tossing them after every few weeks, since the bacteria collects on the Bio-wheel. The only other thing I could do is stick the Bio-Wheel in there, but then my 20 gallon wouldn't have it. Plus, don't Bio-Wheels need exposure to air?

Anyway, this was the best I'm able to do for it. I was hoping the tank would have been cycled by now. Next week we'll be gone for 2 days. I guess I'll do a water change before we leave and then when we get back. Hopefully the ammonia levels won't be high during that time.