Speeding up the cycle - my experience

[TriGa22]

I cycled my IM lagoon25 in 1.5 weeks - the quickest cycle I’ve ever had - and I tried something new. This tank has dry base rock and carib sea reef sand with matrix media. I added some pure ammonia to spike the ammonia to 4ppm and dosed bacteria. Here is where I tried something new - I increased the temperature to 86. I left it at 86 until the cycle finished which took under 2 weeks. Figured I would share my experience with you all as I am convinced that cut the cycle in half.

 

[Fish Fan]

You're not wrong, raising the temperature does speed up a cycle, as does lowering the salinity to about 18-20ppt.

Here's a great talk by Dr. Tim Hovenec of Dr. Tim's One and Only on cycling tanks, and some tricks to speed up the process:

 

[Faurek]

So 86 F is 30 C, and I think that is crazy that it was so fast, but now keep updating, what are you thinking of doing next? Just lower the temp and forget about the 86 degrees or you having a methodology? Yes higher temps do accelerate every chemical reaction and bacteria multiplication as well.

 

[Fish Fan]

So 86 F is 30 C, and I think that is crazy that it was so fast, but now keep updating, what are you thinking of doing next? Just lower the temp and forget about the 86 degrees or you having a methodology? Yes higher temps do accelerate every chemical reaction and bacteria multiplication as well.

Yes, once the cycle is complete you slowly lower the temp down to where you want to run your tank. Also, slowly raise the salinity if you lowered it for your cycle.