Quick cycling question - please help

This is a quick question … I hope I am trying to quick cycle a 5 gallon quarantine tank. I am using Stability. The instructions say that after the first dose you can add new fish immediately as long as you keep dosing daily for the next 7 days. I’m leery. How will I know if the tank is indeed cycled before I add fish? Oh, my first dose was 4 days ago. Thank you!

 

Do you have a test kit? The tank will only truly be cycled when the parameters read correctly, after the tank has established a healthy bacteria colony. The "add fish within a week" products never really work, so you were right to be leery.

I noticed you said it's a qt tank, which I'm assuming means you already have a main tank that's up and running (correct me if I'm wrong). You could quick cycle the 5 gallon by running the filter you have for it in your main tank for like 2 weeks (longer is always safer but I've gotten away with two weeks). Unfortunately other than this method, there isn't really a way to "quickly" cycle a tank, at least that I know of.

 

This is a quick question … I hope I am trying to quick cycle a 5 gallon quarantine tank. I am using Stability. The instructions say that after the first dose you can add new fish immediately as long as you keep dosing daily for the next 7 days. I’m leery. How will I know if the tank is indeed cycled before I add fish? Oh, my first dose was 4 days ago. Thank you!

You can figure out via the usual method - if ammonia-dosing, then by ensuring both ammonia and nitrite reads zero within 24 hours of dosing ammonia, for example.

 

Stability was a waste of money for me. Cycling will take the usual 6 weeks or so unless you seed the filter with some mature media.

 

Do you have a test kit? The tank will only truly be cycled when the parameters read correctly, after the tank has established a healthy bacteria colony. The "add fish within a week" products never really work, so you were right to be leery.

I noticed you said it's a qt tank, which I'm assuming means you already have a main tank that's up and running (correct me if I'm wrong). You could quick cycle the 5 gallon by running the filter you have for it in your main tank for like 2 weeks (longer is always safer but I've gotten away with two weeks). Unfortunately other than this method, there isn't really a way to "quickly" cycle a tank, at least that I know of.

Sorry, just saw this … for some reason I’m not getting notifications. Your advice sounds good. I wish I asked sooner. Thank you!

Stability was a waste of money for me. Cycling will take the usual 6 weeks or so unless you seed the filter with some mature media.

Thanks, seems to be the consensus.

You can figure out via the usual method - if ammonia-dosing, then by ensuring both ammonia and nitrite reads zero within 24 hours of dosing ammonia, for example.

Thanks I will try testing first, but then I might try moving some of the media I have in the filter 20 gallon filter into the new tank. They are the same filters.

Stability was a waste of money for me. Cycling will take the usual 6 weeks or so unless you seed the filter with some mature media.

Yikes! Thanks for the warning.

Do you have a test kit? The tank will only truly be cycled when the parameters read correctly, after the tank has established a healthy bacteria colony. The "add fish within a week" products never really work, so you were right to be leery.

I noticed you said it's a qt tank, which I'm assuming means you already have a main tank that's up and running (correct me if I'm wrong). You could quick cycle the 5 gallon by running the filter you have for it in your main tank for like 2 weeks (longer is always safer but I've gotten away with two weeks). Unfortunately other than this method, there isn't really a way to "quickly" cycle a tank, at least that I know of.

My posts seem to be all over today, so I don’t know if you got my response and I would’ve answered sooner, but for some reason I got no notification… maybe Mercury Retrograde lol … anyway, I will try sharing media with another tank and cycling longer. I will test now. Again, thank you!