How long to cycle a 2 foot tank?

Hi everyone,
Little miss very new to this site and the correct care of axies

I didn't know I needed to cycle a tank, and hence i have my little axies, in the tank already, should i take them out, if I should what should i put them in till the tank is cycled. I was thinking I would leave some water in the bath for 24 hours.. to get rid of chlorine etc.. and then keep them in the bath till the tank is cycled.. we don't use the bath so isn't a problem, plus my bathroom would be a cool place for them. How long will it take to cycle a 2 ft tank

if you have something for the bacteria to feed on (like poos, uneaten food etc) it could take anywhere from around a month upwards. if you have access to established filters you can put that on the tank and it will speed it up geratly. alternatively you could borrow a handful of gravel from a clean healthy tank (friends, relatives etc) and place that in a stocking and add that to the tank. you dont want to put it straight in there as your axies may eat it!!

you can keep them in that tank if you wish but you will have to do at least 30% water changes every day. moving them to the bath will eventually propose the same probs as the tank, you will still have to change water daily.

if you wish to use straight tap water you can, just buy some dechlorinator, its pretty cheap. i reccomend stress coat, it gets rids of chlorines and chloramines and is good for their skin and relieves stress.

hope this helped, any more q's just ask!

i did the same when i first got my axies and didnt cycle, but did daily water changes of around 20-30%
make sure u use some kind of dechlorinating liquid "stress coat" being the best from what iv'e read and u need to get a master water test kit or equivillent so u can see what u tank water is up too, u need to be able to test for Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia, and PH.. i would not put them in the bath tub as it could have soap residues in there etc.. u can just put them in a small container and do complete daily water changes "adding dechlorinating liquid each time" or u being in Aust ur best option might be the fridge over 5c if temps are too hot, water temp shouldn't get over 24c or u will have problems and ur axies will stress, ur tank will take approx 1 mth to cycle, but it varies.. especially if u are doing daily water changes as it will take much longer, if u do put them in containers, add the poo from the axies to ur cycling tank as well as this will speed up ur cycle..

hope it helps....

beat me too it Sharn lol

(Message edited by kharmakazi on January 17, 2006)

Thanks for the help, Since my axies are still rather small and I assume only babies, and I am having problems feeding them, I figure it is best to put them into a smaller tank with no substrate, so their food isn't getting lost in it and they are not taking in little bits of gravel when they do grab at what are in the gravel. Because at this stage they seem to miss more than they eat and what's going into the gravel is only souring the tank so to speak. While they are in this smaller and more appropriate tank, because of their size, I will focus on getting the larger tank set up and cycled so it is a more appropriate environment for them.
As said in another post here, I wish I had found this site before purchasing the little axies, I have not been advised correctly about the care of these little guys, be it feeding, or their enviroment. I do hope my ignorance doesn't have me loosing these guys, before I even begin.

I am fortunate to have A/C so temps not such a big deal, but still I will monitor water temp and if it gets to high, into the fridge with the little guys. Though from what I read it might be a good idea,to aid regeneration, one of my guys has no virtually no limbs, due to canabalism at the pet shop. is this corrct? Putting them in the fridge is still a hard concept to get my head around, but understand why.

Jenny, good call on the smaller tubs. It's a lot easier to monitor food intake that way.

Most pet shops don't know they're rear from their elbow when it comes to the animals they sell. That's why we're here! Glad you found us!

Regarding the one with no limbs: if it's in a tub of it's own, and it's eating well, and there are no signs of fungus, I wouldn't worry about the fridge. If it stops eating, gets lethargic, grows fungus, or shows other signs of illness, the best place is the fridge.

What do you plan on using for a substrate in your tank? I assume you're going to get rid of the gravel (gravel's bad, blocks up the digestive system, causes impaction, leads to death...). Most of us here use sand. I've had bare bottom, large river rock bottom, and most recently, sand. The bare bottom's the most simple, and the easiest to keep clean. The river rock was just a pain, impossible to keep clean, and was still small enough that they could get it in their mouth. The sand is nice as it looks more natural, and doesn't cause impaction like gravel. I would put the substrate (whatever you use) in as you start the cycle, as it will give your bacteria more places to grow. Best of luck!

On the subject of substrate, most likely sand, but I am annoyed that i actually paid more for the gravel than I did the 2 axies, and now i find out it's not appropriate, but it's only money I guess and it's little lives we are talking about here. Though the gravel I do have is very very small, and though i do believe it could cause problems for the little guys at the mo, once they are bigger, the chance of a granule causing problems is greatly reduced, this belief reinforced by info i read on the site that brought me to this forum, saying that they should be able to pass the granules, plus the fact that once they are big enough to take whole earthworms, they will be eating from my hand, since I don't have a problem with handling the worms, I actually enjoy that whole feeding process.. smiles

I have had the little guys for 3 days now and though they looked a little stressed, understandable so, due to the whole change thing, now look happier and are not showing signs of stress like they had been, feeding them at this stage seems my biggest problem at the mo... so into substrate free containers they go...though I do know I need to address the tank issue as well.

[kapo]

Hi Jenny - I am new to axies, but some friends of ours used to have their axies on 1.5cm sized gravel and didn't think it was a problem (axies now bout 25cm long), but they recently changed to sand. Even tho they handfed their axies they managed to poo out quite a few pieces of gravel within the same day as being put on the sand. Friends had thought they had very fat, wellfed axies. And, as the gravelly poo was the same as the gravel, of course they didn't realise. Now about a month on, and their axies are still pooing odd bits of colourful gravel. They are looking a lot slimmer, but certainly not skinny!

Thanks Kapo, though my gravel is even smaller than that, it's really small stuff, it would be lucky to be 2/10th cm in diameter. But eventually I will, I think change to sand.

Hey there Jenny;
you can also blend the gravel to make it even smaller. I remember reading another post here (wasnt that long ago), where someone blended the gravel and it didnt end up lookn too bad either
Its worth a try if you can be bothered.
Alternatively.. buy the sand (its so cheap anyway) and use the gravel for something else aquatic (use my method and let it be an excuse to buy some more pets LOL).

That would be good, get a tank for fish as well but I don't think my partner would agree.

I could be bothered to blend to gravel, but worry what sort of damage might be done to the blender?

Right. Best use an old one. Maybe you'll find someone selling one or even giving it away. Do you have garage sales (people selling their old, unwanted stuff from their garages for cheap) or freecycle? www.freecycle.org for example or craigslist.com. People like the warm weather for that sort of thing here.

all this doesn't matter... I will be getting sand....

sell it on...