poisonoakley101

Hi I'm Erin. I'm new to the site but not exactly new to fishkeeping, but I have a few questions. Is it ok to cycle a new tank by moving half the water from my ten gallon tank into the new tank? What if i borrow some of the gravel to transfer the bacteria?

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore erin! id use some of your filter media, some gravel, and some decorations if you have them..that will seed your new tank pretty fast...theres not alot of beneficial bacteria in the water but much more in the above things ...goodluck

clinton1621

The gravel will help more, water doesnt contain a lot of bacteria, so it isnt going to do much. I would do a partial water change on the older tank and use that water along with some gravel from that tank to 'seed' the new tank.

poisonoakley101

Ok thanks for the help. I had to get a bigger tank because my little angelfish is out growing the old one. Do you think if I buy gravel for the new fish tank and then let it sit in the old tank for a few days that would work out? I'm not sure how this all works but I don't want to leave the little tank with not enough gravel...

Shawnie

it takes approx two weeks to seed things enough for beneficial bacteria to do a good job...cut some of your filter media off and with a little bit of gravel, you should have a faster cycle...also, if you can find some tetra safestart at your LFS that will cycle the tank even quicker!

clinton1621

That probably wouldnt work... it takes the bacteria quite some time to establish in new gravel. I would take about 1/4 of the gravel you have in the 10 gallon out for the new tank, then just replace what you took out with new gravel.

Make sure the new tanks filter is up and running and the water is dechlored and heated BEFORE you add the gravel from the old tank, if not then the bacteria from the old tanks gravel will die... also when you add the gravel, any bacteria that is sucked up by the filter will help your new filter establish quicker =)