nap83

I decided to get another set-up cause the zebra felt it was too crowded in a 20 gallon. It dominated the crabro & the former-dominant l. caureleus. It was due to a change in the setting of the tank by accident. Man african cichlid heirarchy is a b___!

So I've decided to set up a new tank, a 30 gallon, to house my l. caureleus. I have to do it quickly or he will die of stress! It's the first time I'm using sand, which is Aragonite. HOW LONG DOES THIS SAND SETTLE? HOW CAN I PUT THE BACTERIA FROM THE OLD AQUARIUM TO THE NEW ONE IN AN EFFECTIVE WAY?

Good help would be appreciated. I got bacterias like Biozyme & Cycle but I heard this new thing called Right Now Bacteria that cycles a tank in 24 hours! or should I just get the bacteria from my old tank? I dunno, & the sand's frustrating me.

Dino

Adding material from the cycled tank, be it substrate or rocks or even to a degree water, will shorten the time it takes the tank to cycle.

Dino

neverendingninja

You can also purchase Bio-Spira, either online, or if you're lucky, at a LFS. I don't think most chain stores have it, but a good bit of the true fish stores seem to carry it. It's $15 for enough to do your 30 gal, and $20 for shipping from drsfosterandsmith.com However, they only ship it Monday thru Thursday, so you'd already have to wait 3 days.

Other than that, adding a bit of the substrate(make sure it stays wet) from the old tank, and filter media is the best way to go, AFAIK.

Good luck, and kudos on doing the right thing for the fishes!(yeah, like you didn't just want another tank. :P)

melawii

If you already have a healthy tank that is cycled still running, you can take 25% of that water and add it to your new one along with the rest of the new water you add. It only counts as a weekly water change on the other tank! You can also, depending on what filter you have of course, run an old filter cartridge on a new tank for an hour a day. I know I did this on my new tank! but it depends if you have a tank still running I guess.