The cycling process normally takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks. At temperatures below 70F, it takes even longer to cycle a tank. In comparison to other types of bacteria, nitrifying bacteria grow slowly. Under optimal conditions, it takes a full 15 hours for a colony to double in size!
Since the tank is empty you COULD add an aquarium heater and warm the tank to somewhere in the range of 25-28 degrees C it will speed it up a little but remember to take it out and allow the water to cool right down before you add any animals to it!
I am skeptical of this next option but it must be put in here
More recently, products containing colonies of nitrifying bacteria have become available at pet shops (e.g., ``Fritz'', ``Bio-zyme'', ``Cycle''). In theory, adding the bacteria jump-starts the colonization process as above. Net experience with such products has been mixed; some folks report success, while others report they don't work at all. In principle, such products should work well. However, nitrifying bacteria cannot live indefinitely without oxygen and food. Thus, the effectiveness of a product depends on its freshness and can be adversely effected by poor handling (e.g., overheating). Unfortunately, these products don't come with a freshness date, so there is no way to know how old they are.
Other ways to speed up cycling unfortunately require access to a trusted and well established tank.
The basic idea is to find an established tank, take some of the bacteria out of it and place them in the new tank.There are 2 ways to do it :happy:
1.
Bring the Bacteria to you
Most filters have some sort of foam block or floss insert on which nitrifying bacteria attach. Borrowing all or part of such an insert and placing it in the new tank's filter gets things going more quickly.
If the established tank uses an undergravel filter, nitrifying bacteria will be attached to the gravel. Take some of the gravel (a cup or more) and hang it in a mesh bag in your filter (if you can), or hang/lay it in the new tank. An ornament or some plants would also work but would need to be placed in the aquarium not in the filter
Some (not many) aquarium stores will provide aquarium buyers with a cup of gravel from an established tank.
A word of caution is appropriate here. Due to the nature of the business, tanks in stores are very likely to contain unwanted pathogens (bacteria, parasites, etc.); you don't want to add them to your tank. If possible, seed a filter with bacteria from a non-store tank.
2.
Take your filter to the bacteria
If you have a box, sponge or corner filter, simply connect it to an established aquarium and let it run for a week or so. Bacteria in the water will establish a bed in the new filter. After a week, move the now ``seasoned'' filter to the new tank.
Of course, there are many variations on the above that work. However, it is a bit difficult to give an exact recipe that is guaranteed to work. It is advisable to take a conservative approach and not add animal too quickly.
In addition, testing the water to be sure nitrates are being produced eliminates the guesswork of determining when your tank has cycled.
