can i speed up cycling if i....

can i sped up cycling any way

what if i took water from a small lake or pond and add it to my fish tank could i speed up the cycling

could i add some water household ammonia and bacteria in a bottle in a bucket and soak my filter pads for a couple days to speed it up

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About the only way you can speed up the cycle is by adding Biospira (that's the only "bacteria-in-a-bottle" product I recommend) or some established filter media or maybe some gravel (the media would be better than the gravel).

There is very little beneficial bacteria free floating in the water so adding lake water wouldn't help. Plus you'd risk introducing parasites.

And I don't think putting the filter media in a bucket of diluted ammonia would help much because you would need water flowing over the media, plus even if it did help some, it wouldn't happen really quickly. I would take several days and your fish would be in a tank w/o any filtration for that period which would not be a good thing.

-Chelle

 

In order to properly cycle a tank, all that's required is the filter media, water movement (to supply oxygen to the bacterial colonies, an introduction of the right type of bacteria, and a source of ammonia. The best and most efficient source of ammonia is (surprisingly) pure ammonia. The household cleaning variety is perfect for this use, but make sure that it does not contain any additives or perfumes before using!
In order to cycle a tank using ammonia, start everything up and add some gravel from an established tank or a few potted plants (their roots contain all of the necessary bacteria, and the plants themselves do not seem to be harmed by this process). Then simply add 4-5 drops of ammonia per 10 gallons per day until you get a nitrite spike. Once you have nitrites, cut the ammonia back to 2-3 drops per 10 gallons per day until the nitrites disappear. When you get a 0 ppm nitrites reading, you have a fully cycled tank.
The advantages to this method are several. First and most importantly, in my reckoning, is that no fish are harmed during the cycling process. This means that you don't have to risk the fish you really want in the tank to a nasty death, or alternatively, find a new home for several fish that you were using to cycle the tank and no longer want. Secondly, no matter how cheap the fish, I can guarantee that 10 or 20 mL of ammonia is cheaper!