whetto

i was thinking of getting a five gallon tank to accent my other two, but in my naturally impatient ways i dont wanna cycle it. now i know that it must be cycled and all that, and thats fine, but i was thinking...what if i tookj half the gravel i want to use in my new five gallon from my cycled 20 gallon, and also filled the five gallon with newly changed (and treated) water from my twenty gallon or ten gallon (since it has an algea growth it must be healthy). would i still have to cycle this new tank? or would doing these two things greatly speed up the process? (maybe to a few days?)

jenniwren

it will reduce the time but not eliminate it, my tank was cycled in about 2 weeks... but i only used some gravel. filter media that is used is also a good way too. good luck and be patient

Isabella

Jenn is right. You'll still have to cycle it, but if you take a lot of gravel from a cycled tank, it may cycle much faster. Try it. As for the water, a lot of people say that there are no nitro-bacteria in the water (only in the filter and on all surfaces in the tank). But, I guess you can try adding water as well if you want to, and see what happens. The most important thing is that your ammonia and nitrite should both equal 0 when your tank is cycled. Nitrate can be showing, but don't let it go over 20 ppm. Good luck