steveangela1

I have a 55 G set up, I put all the water in it on Sunday w/ the gravel/rock, etc.... I also treated the water w/ a declorinator and put stress zyme that has the bacteria in it.
My question is can I cycle my tank faster for new fish by using filter media from either my 6 or 10g tanks? Is there anything I can do to speed the process to get new fish in my tank? Or with the stress zyme if my water quality checks out at the end of the week is it safe to put 3-4 african
cichlids in it?
I just don't want to kill any new fish w/ the new tank syndrome. I also have though 2 tanks running one that has been established for 5 years.

sirdarksol

Yes, you can use filter media from your 6 or 10g tanks and it will speed the cycle up. What kind of filters do you have in the 6 and 10, and what kind of filter do you have in the 55? Stress Zyme on its own won't cycle the tank.

steveangela1

its just the out of the tank hang on filters w/ activated carbon in them

MissMTS

If you add the used filter media and bio-spira your tank should be cycled within 2 days. That stuff works magic I swear.

sirdarksol

With the used filters, bio-spira is likely a waste of $30+.

Most Hang on Back filters (HOBs) have two pieces of media. One is a bag filled with charcoal (most of us around here just leave the charcoal out or replace it with ceramic media), the other is a sponge, often a blue color. When setting up your tank, just find a place where you can wedge the used bio-media in. I sometimes will take an X-acto knife and slice the used bio-media into two thinner pieces and place them between the two different types of media.