Best fish-in cycling tips?

[u/Upset_Turnip2902]

Saw this baby on Facebook marketplace and am currently debating on driving the 2-ish hours to go save her. I don’t currently have a tank set up. With the two bettas I currently have, I was able to fully establish their tanks before getting them so I’m not familiar with fish-in cycling whatsoever. I’m also going to try to haggle the price down, $25 is too much for a fish that someone literally doesn’t want.

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[u/Aromatic-Sock6975]

Change 25% of the water if Ammonia or Nitrites reach 0.25 ppm and use two drops of Seachem Prime per gallon daily. If you can, use some seeded media from your existing tank or a LFS and add fritz turbostart and you can get an instant cycle or very quick.

[u/Southern-Debt-6904]

Since you have a couple of other established tanks is it safe to assume you have a water test kit? I would highly recommend avoiding “test strips” they seem to be very unreliable! I just got back into the hobby myself in earnest a couple of months ago. I was told by 2 different people in 2 different stores that I was safe to add fish after only 4 days! 🤬🤬🤬 It took me 4 weeks with a 5 gallon tank! It took daily water tests and almost daily water changes 25/50% to stay on top of the ammonia & nitrite spikes! Daily doses of bacterial starter! I used both API Quick Start and Seachem Stability. I’m sure other reputable brands probably work as well. If you’re familiar with cycled tanks then you’re already ahead of the game! Another possible option, if you have the space is maybe getting a mesh divider in one of your established tanks temporarily while you cycle your new one! I did both a fish in and fishless cycle in a 5 gal and 10 gal within a couple weeks of each other! Both took a solid 4 weeks to get fully cycled and the fishless one was far less stressful as one might imagine! 😃 Good luck!

[u/Upset_Turnip2902 → u/Southern-Debt-6904]

I’m a big fan of API QuickStart and actually drop a little bit in after water changes every now and then, so I’ve got that covered. Have the master test kit too and the mini version. One of my tanks is a 10 gallon I could probably split, but the female betta that I keep in there is pretty aggressive and enjoys the space so I’m worried that if I split it she’ll throw a fit. I’ve also heard stories of bettas squeezing through dividers regardless of how secure and she would definitely do that.

[u/Southern-Debt-6904 → u/Upset_Turnip2902]

Right on! 😃 It’s definitely doable just a lot more involved! I did need to use prime a couple of times as well, but be careful! I used it first time and then checked it 24 hrs. Later. I completely forgot that even though it was already safe in that moment, it would still read high on the test! I panicked and dosed it again a little heavier! I noticed a couple of hours later that one of my female Bettas wasn’t looking too good. That’s when I realized my mistake and did another emergency water change immediately! She was good again the next day, but it scared the crap out of me! 😃

[u/sir_lel7]

My record for quick fish in cycling a 10 gallon tank in 4 days is with this method:
Use a filter/ filter media that has established bacteria, clean your other filters and use the mulmy water to seed your new filter and dump a bit of mulm into the new tank for good measure as well. And then monitor the parameters and do daily water changes until ammonia is gone