what is the fastest way to cycle

what is the fastes way to cycle a fish tank from the get go?

 

No such thing as fastest. There are to many factors that go into a cycle.

If you use already cured LR and use any form of aragonite, your tank should be cycled within a week. Some will disagree with me on that, but I did this with one of my tanks and I had a slight mini cycle the first 2 days, then nothing. I waited an entire week just in case it did not cycle.

 

i agree, i used fully cured rock on both my tanks and they never went through a series of big cycles, its just expensive

 

Agreed. I used 90% base rock and the rest fully cured live rock. I had a tiny cycle that lasted about a week and then it was done.

But every tank is different.

 

Too many variables to give a definite picture. To put it in perspective, I used all aquacultured rock, and had a 2 week "low" cycle, where ammonia stayed at a .3 for about 4 days, and then nitrite at a plateau like that for a bit longer.

That being said, the general idea to have a faster cycle would involve getting fully cured or aquacultured live rock, and a bit of live sand from an established tank, and putting it in the tank with your base rock and plain aragonite sand. That will tend to lead to a faster cycle.

 

got the tank up and running today so how about 100% new ro/di sw aragonite live sand 2" bed and no rock, my diy rock has 2 more weeks before its done. ha whats going to happen when i put 60 lbs of fresh diy rock in the tank? new cycle?

 

yes... a new cycle as whatever 'stuff' if on the new rock dies and your tank's bacteria takes over

make sure you cure the DIY rock first to avoid pH issues though... I own a concrete company so ill tell you, curing is the most important part of DIY rock

 

the fastest way to cycle is to wait 30 days even when using all LR and aged sand you need about a month for all the bacteria and algae to mix and get to know each other.

if its an emergency for a QT you can get away with using LR and a sponge that has been sitting in an established tank being "aged".

 

i added about 7 gallons of sw and 8 lbs of live rock from my old tank to the new tank plus 15ml of Micro Bacter7. Micro Bacter7 is made by BRIGHTWELL its a complete bioculture for establishing biological filtrion and rapidly improving water quality in all marine tanks so i dont know what it will do or how fast it will do it..

 

This should help your bacteria populate the tank,but the best thing you can do is to be patient.Good things happen slowly,problems happen quickly and can take a long time to overcome,causing frustration,which sometimes happens quickly.