New Fish Tank Cycling Question...

Hello I need some quick advice for a tank.

I'm going to buy a fish tank Monday (7.5 gallon) and was wondering how to cycle it properly. I currenlty have a 15 gallon which has been established for a year and wondered if putting filter media in the new filter and some of the tank water in the tank will cycle the new aquarium that day?

Hopefully I can just add the filter media into the new tank which will mean a quicker cycle but wanted to ask what was best.

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

 

Bacteria is mostly on surfaces, so adding water from your existing tank won't do much. Adding media that's from your existing tank will help.

Whether the media from your existing tank provides an instant cycle depends on how much you put in. If you take out half of what's in your existing tank, it might cycle the new one, depending on the load you have in the existing tank. But you might break the cycle on your existing tank. Again, it just depends on the bioload on the old and new tanks. I'd recommend testing both tanks to see how both cycles are coming along.

I wouldn't recommend transferring more than half the filter media from the old tank to the new tank. If your bioloads are light, that might do the trick for both.

 

Great thank you I forgot if the water would help that makes sense about the filter as well.

 

Just be sure to add an ammonia source at the same time as you put the seeded media in the new tank. The ammonia source can be fish or bottled ammonia. I wouldn't recommend fish food as an ammonia source in this case because it takes it a while to decompose and form ammonia.

That is the beauty of having an already cycled and established tank. One never has to go through the long drawn out cycling process again. I always keep 2 dual sponge filter running in my big tank for times just as this. Moving one of them over to a smaller tank will instantly cycle it.

Since you are not going to get the smaller tank for a couple of days it might be a good idea to go ahead and stuff some extra media in you up and running tank/filter. It won't grow much bacteria in just a couple of days but every little bit will help.

 

Just be sure to add an ammonia source at the same time as you put the seeded media in the new tank. The ammonia source can be fish or bottled ammonia. I wouldn't recommend fish food as an ammonia source in this case because it takes it a while to decompose and form ammonia.

That is the beauty of having an already cycled and established tank. One never has to go through the long drawn out cycling process again. I always keep 2 dual sponge filter running in my big tank for times just as this. Moving one of them over to a smaller tank will instantly cycle it.

Since you are not going to get the smaller tank for a couple of days it might be a good idea to go ahead and stuff some extra media in you up and running tank/filter. It won't grow much bacteria in just a couple of days but every little bit will help.

Great sounds good, I'm going to put a Betta fish in the tank do you think it would be alright if I did what you said in the first day/3 days and add him in? Thanks as well for your advice

 

Great sounds good, I'm going to put a Betta fish in the tank do you think it would be alright if I did what you said in the first day/3 days and add him in? Thanks as well for your advice

That should work. Just be sure to keep a close eye on the perimeters of this tank. Hopefully you have an API Master kit so you can know quickly if something goes wrong. It shouldn't but the price of the kit is a very small price to pay for the peace of mind.

 

That should work. Just be sure to keep a close eye on the perimeters of this tank. Hopefully you have an API Master kit so you can know quickly if something goes wrong. It shouldn't but the price of the kit is a very small price to pay for the peace of mind.

Yeah totally agree I have a water test kit so I'm all set hopefully everything works out!

 

Yeah totally agree I have a water test kit so I'm all set hopefully everything works out!

Fantastic!! Please keep us updated. We really do care and love to hear happy endings.