CHoffman

I've been looking at ways to make a cycle go faster. On a site that I was reading it suggested you squeeze a filter from an established tank into a new tank and it adds loads of the good ole bacteria. Is this a valid statement??..I'm defintaly willing to try it if it will help. What do you guys think?

Shawnie

not sure on the mud thing...I think its too much waste being added to the new tank..but cutting the filter media in half and putting some of the media in there would help alot....

Dozey

Well since you are only looking for opinions and not actual knowledge I’ll throw in my 2 cents worth. Although you might be squeezing some of the bacteria out of the sponge I think “loads” might be a little hopeful. As with algae on a tanks glass those micro-organisms can hang on pretty tight. I think throwing the whole foam in would add “loads” more bacteria then you would get from a good squeeze.

But that’s just my 2 cents worth.

Hmm… I might owe you change.

CHoffman

Very true..That would be a awful lot of waste being squeezed in there. Thank you Shawnie. . I have done the media thing...Right now I have two filters and part of a sponge from another established tank...Plus a the Bio-wheel on the filter and I added a good amount of gravel in pantyhose from the established tank too..Raised the temp up to like 84 have lots of aeration going..lol..If you can think of something that might help even more let me know...Thanks again.

CHoffman

your vey right about just putting the whole filter in. It would be alot better then just squeezing. I would love to do that but it's from another tank that's using it at the moment.

Shawnie

make sure you are feeding it something..whether it be the pure ammonia, a piece of raw shrimp, or some fish food twice a day...otherwise it will kill the good bacteria off

CHoffman

I'm checking it every 12 hours. I bring the ammonia up to 2ppm. It's going at a good rate now but I figure every little bit helps.

Red1313

you could also try adding snails as an ammonia source, though they could be tricky to get rid of later.

CHoffman

Does it harm the snail going through the cycle?..

griffin

it would be harmful to the snails, but depending on what kind of snails you use, they would probably survive. pond snails are pretty hard to get rid of later down the line, but are also hardy. apple/mystery snails produce a lot of waste, would be easy to get rid of later, but are not as hardy. hope that helped

dancerhas

Please don't use a poor apple snail for the cycle! Just because it's an invert doesn't make it less important than a fish.

I think squeezing a used filter into the new filter would be the most effective. If you squeeze the filter into the tank about 10% of the bacteria might get to the new filter. If you squeeze it directly into the new filter about 90% of the bacteria might reach the new one.

CHoffman

No worries..I will not be using ANY live creature to help cycle my tank. Thanks everyone for all the advise. I think I'm going to just let it run it's cycle..It's going at a good rate and I think that's it's seeded pretty well. Thanks again guys.