How long to leave my aquarium its all set up the man said 1 week ive herd 2 days now anyone help?

Question

ive set up my aquarium for tropical fish done everything shop said but ive been told to wait 1week before i put fish in but i got told today 2 days is all u need

Answer 1

They're most likely referring to the tank going through the "cycle process".  But, the cycle won't start unless there is an ammonia source added to the tank to start the cycle.  Ammonia sources can be the fish, pure ammonia(which is rather hard to find now a days), fish food, frozen cocktail shrimps, basically anything that will rot will produce ammonia in your tank.   You can add your fish now, in fact, you could add the fish right after you add water to the tank. Waiting a week or a few days does nothing except give you an empty fish tank full of water to watch.  

But, read through this link first about the cycle process, so you can understand what that's all about:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biolog...

And, also do a search(I don't have any links saved)on fishless cycling a fish tank.  That will save you lots of time, money, and grief in the long run.

Answer 2

I have a friend that owns a hatchery and he always said it is a good idea to buy cheap feeder gold fish to put in a new tank and wait a few weeks and then return them to the store and buy the tropical fish. They will help to cycle the tank.

Answer 3

if you have a friend with an established aquarium you can scrape some bacteria off of his/her bio media and put it in your filter for an "immediate" cycle. this will speed the cycle time up considerably.

Answer 4

1 week is the best because it makes a water cycle. and the toxic  chemicals will go away so it's safe for tropical fish.

Answer 5

You want the filter working for a day or two just get it set up.

There's no reason to have to wait an entire week.  

The reason is what you really want is the bacteria to grow.

Get some fish in there and start getting your tank cycled.

Start slow though, give time for bacteria to build up and get your tank cycled before getting all the fish you want.

Answer 6

48 hours is all you need.

Answer 7

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles...

Cycling the tank takes about 4 to 6 weeks.  You need to build up good bacteria and get the whole process established before you add fish.

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Answer 8

Try 4-6 weeks. You aren't doing anything by just letting water run through. You either need to add pure ammonia to make an ammonia and nitrate spike happen or put in food so it will rot and cause an ammonia spike so the bacteria will start growing.