Marktrix Posted May 22, 2005 Report Share Posted May 22, 2005 Howdy folks, I thought the easiest way to move house (out of home - again) was to leave my tank in the capable hands of my parents (who I have sucessfully passed the fish bug onto), and buy a new tank for my new home. So, yesterday saw myself purchase an AR-620 ( 90l 620x380x500 ish)... I have a 40l established tropical tank with all the kids waiting with anticipation to join me in the new place. I have read up fairly well on cycling - there's heaps of great info on this site - and I was thinking about placing the filter wool from my new tank into the current functional tank.... This in effect should 'seed' the filters from my new tank with glourious riches of funky bacteria. Edit - I'll chuck in the noodles too... My question is - how long do you think it the filter wool would need to be in the existing tank for the bacteria to get a decent hold?? This whole cycling concept is such a tease when you get a new tank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted May 22, 2005 Report Share Posted May 22, 2005 As long as you can but I would aim for a couple of weeks, you don't say where you are going to put the media? Best place would be in the old filter, but anywhere that you have good water movement through the media. Or even better why don't you just put the whole new filter on your old tank? You could even swap the two filters over, then your old filter will speed up the cycle of the new tank, and the old tank will cycle the new filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marktrix Posted May 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2005 That's a sharp idea - a few logistical bumps to work out due to the different sizes of the filters etc- hadn't thought of that - cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiverJohn Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 IN addition to teh advise above, when you do a water change chuck some (all?) of it into the new tank. If your thinking "logical bumps" If you had the new filter running on the old tank for a wee while, it would be cycled with the batcteria from the old tank.. ( Like a fully charged battery ?). If you were to do a 50% water change on the old tank and put the water in the NEW tank instead of chucking it down the drain ( or on the Basil ) And install your freshly "charged" filter, you would effectivly be doin a weekly 50% water change on both tanks. Only downfall might be that the new tank will need some fish straight away to keep ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate cycle ticking along - is that a problem?? :lol: the logic seems to work for me, just a thought... John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 I would still wait a few days or even a week or two before adding new fish, even if you move the water and filter into the new tank. Aged water is good but it is a common misconception that moving old water into a new tank avoids the cycling problem. Water actually has very little bacteria in it (compared to the total in the tank), most of the bacteria is on the surfaces (rocks, gravel, glass, and filter media). Another way to help speed up the process is to move a few handfuls of gravel (unwashed)from the old tank to the new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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