Can sunlight help tank to cycle faster?

I normally cycle my tank using fish food. it usually take around 4 weeks for the water to be cloudy and thereafter clear up on its own. will putting the tank on sunlight make the process faster?

 

No it will only cause algae to grow faster. Cycling the tank has nothing to do with the water being cloudy, it has to do with the beneficial bacteria growing enough to handle the ammonia levels. Sometimes that coincides with cloudy water but not always. Sometimes cloudy water is from algae or bacteria and the tank still isn't cycled.

 

Light is unlikely to make cycling be faster or slower. Nitrifiers are known to be inhibited by light (lot's of factors, but it can be considered a general statement). Not that it really matters, they'll find places in our tanks that is dark enough, like our biomedia in most cases. So... yeah nah, generally not gonna affect the cycle either way.

 

Can you get pure ammonia to cycle with instead of fish food? Much better and more accurate to test the water parameters. And less messy.

 

Can you get pure ammonia to cycle with instead of fish food? Much better and more accurate to test the water parameters. And less messy.

too expensive.

 

Sunlight has absolutely nothing to do with cycling a tank and fish food is a terribly slow, messy, unpredictable and expensive way to cycle a tank. Youre adding food and waiting for it to rot so it can add who knows how much ammonia. On top of that, youre going to have to clean the rotting food out of the tank regularly, removing the ammonia. Also, the term "cycled" refers to having enough beneficial bacteria to turn all ammonia into nitrates immediately. So, depending on the bioload youre putting into the tank, you might not actually be "cycled". Get some ammonia at the hardware store, dose 2-4ppm a day, check parameters daily and go from there. Also, a 64oz bottle of ammonia is cheaper than fish food here in Maine (its like $2 a bottle).