coffeebean

k, so i might get another tank, 25 gallons. this person has it listed for $80 canadian including a fluval 104 filter, heater, everything

anyways, im thinking about the set up and of course want it cycled and ready to go as soon as possible. if i take a large porous rock and lots of plant clippings and take some of my filter media from the canister into the new canister how long do you think it would take before i could add fish? what abotu if i use water from the other tanks?

MissMTS

Tank water won't help, but porous rocks, gravel, and mature filter media will deffinetly help. It will cycle the tank almost instantly. Just stock slowly to make sure that the bacteria have time to adjust to the added bioload

Ricardo_NY1

Hard to tell but I think you should just bring in some of the filter media and gravel.........the other stuff is not really necessary. The water won't speed anything up. You'll definitely cut the cycle time by bringing in media from a cycled filter.

I'd do just that, and anything else that would help things along such as raising the tank's temp and throwing in an airstone. After that it narrows down to how fast your tank can bring down the ammonia and nitrites. I don't believe in 1/2 cycling and crutching the tank along with constant water changes. It's more laborous in the long run and all you're really doing is extending the amount of time it will actually take for the filter to be cycled to your tank's load because it is never being exposed to the load with all the water changes going on.

Cycling is one of those things that needs to be done right once. Any other way and it'll be a lesson learned. You'll definitely have a jump start with the media.

I think throwing in a blast of Ammonia into the 4 parts range for a few days before actually adding the fish would get your more bacteria throughout the tank.

coffeebean

thank you, i wasnt sure if tank water was useful or not. I will be stocking slowly. I have two swordtails in a 10 gallon tank but i have 6 babies that will need somewhere to go when they are big enough. i can hardly have 8 swordtails in a ten gallon tank! So it will be just the two of them and a couple otos likely for now. I will keep the ten gallon planted with my two kuhli loaches. i would like to add a third and a red crowntail betta when i finally find one.

namehater

i agree with missmts. if you transfer all of your seeded material to the new tank without an ammonia source in the tank, all the bacteria will die, so you dont want to wait really. you also want to make sure you treat the tank for chlorine as you fill it as well, the chlorine will kill your good bacteria.

if it was me, i would fill the tank with water, treat it with prime or some other chlorine remover. let it sit for 24hrs before adding my filter media and other seeded items, then within the next 24hrs put a couple of fish in the tank.

Ricardo_NY1

He can transfer whatever media he has and throw in ammonia until it's up to 4 parts............at which point, I doubt anything he transfered will be able to bring it down within the time a fully cycled filter could. And continue adding ammonia to feed and get that bacteria going until they come down as they should. You don't need to stock slowly with a fully cycled filter. If you're willing to wait, I'd transfer all the media over, bring the ammonia up to 4 parts with ammonia and proceed with a wait method. You're getting a big jumpstart by bringing in media and such and can have a fully cycled filter as opposed to a 1/2 ways one.

On another note.......it sounds like your ultimate and even the stocking you're going to do now is pretty low for the tank size, so you may very well get away with an instant startup.