How far is your tank ‘cycled’?. Discussion

How far is your tank ‘cycled’?
That is the broad question……what are people thoughts on that?

What does ‘my tank is fully cycled’ actually mean?

What does ‘you tank is not cycled’ actually mean?

For me, there is at least 2 answers to those latter questions:
One is an accepted but incorrect answer based upon pretty primitive beliefs and ease of teaching; the other possible answer is closer to what actually happens in the water.

A fact is not a fact simply because it is easy to tell someone about it.

If I were to answer on how long it takes a tank to fully ‘cycle’ then I can’t possibly see a tank being in a fit state of ‘fully cycled’ in under 6 to 9 months….and then that would only be if the water were in optimal condition.

What we may have is an acceptable partial ‘cycled’ system in-place after a few weeks, but that is not a full system.

I also don’t like the term ‘cycled’ it seems to be gaining some emptiness in its meaning nowadays…..I would much prefer ‘maturity’ (and ‘maturity’ would probably be a more accurate word to describe what is being discussed in many discussions on this).

So.....what does 'cycled' mean to you?

ian

When i first started keepin fish the word "cycled" was unheard of. So time went by and researched on the internet and then found out about the word "cycled". Now i totally agree with u Ian and use the woed "the tank is now mature enough to add this fish". I have a 1100 litre setup with a sump. The sump hold loads of media and it is running 9 months now and i feel it is mature enough now to add most species of fish. I think a lot of people feel that the tank is fully "cycled after 6 weeks or so and that might be true for particular fish but some fish would much prefer a more mature system to live in. I hereby open this "maturity" debate open.

I was under impresion, the tank is cycled in 2-3 months and the water chemistry is suitable for the fish to be in.

tank beeing mature to my opinion comes a lot later and the environment as one entity together with water and filter biology will protect the fish from all sorts of other stuff you can't measure with the kit.
so mature meaning safe.

I probably need to read more re this

Without the questions or items on special additives to water, and only talking about a natural maturation process....within a few weeks (6 to 8) the tank will at a stage of cycling suitable for fish-keeping. AND...to be quite honest, most set-ups would be fit for purpose (with limited stocking levels of course) well before that time.

However, the point is about being 'fully' cycled.....or, as I would prefer to call it, 'mature'.

The biological filter processes that are in-place within a month or two are the oxygen expensive, acid generating process that many think are the be-all and end-all processes within a tank; but there are other nitrogen cycling processes that can take place in a very mature system that are not as expensive on oxygen, do not tend to generate so much acid (and less likely to have an acid crash) and will rid the tank of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
But, the bacteria in those processes are some of the slowest growing bacteria that I can think of.....having a doubling time of 2 to 3 weeks (compared with 20 minutes for something like out gut bacteria), and thus maybe taking 6 to 9 months to reach a level of usefulness in a tank.

When that is in-place then I would say, for the need of a fish tank, that the cycle is complete; and anything before that time could not be said to be completely 'cycled'.

Now, there is a difference between old dirty water and a mature tank. You can't get to mature water by simply having the same water in the tank for 9 months....that is just muck water; but it is the system that is mature.

That is my take on a tank being 'fully' cycled.

ian