Redoing a 15 gallon tank... I'm likely doing it all wrong :)

So, My 15 gallon tank is the tank I've had for the longest, and the only one that is not planted. However, I want to change that now.
For reference, this is what the tank looked like before I started this project:


So, today I started this morning by removing all of the decorations. I did not take any pictures until quite a bit in, so you'll have to wait to see those. I set up a bin for the fish to live in while I work on the tank (I'll take a pic later) with some of the fake plants and a bit of gravel for BB.
Then I started taking gravel out. I planned to only take about half of it out, one, because I didn't think I had enough substrate to fill the entire tank, and two, because I wanted some BB to stick around the tank so I don't have to re-cycle it.


So I added the rest of the bag to my tank. This is about when I both got the excellent idea to reuse the substrate from the 3 and 2.5 gallon tanks that I had, which would have BB already on the substrate, and decided I should start soaking some of my driftwood. I stuck the driftwood into the 3 gallon...


And then immediately decided to put it in the 2.5 gallon instead. I was planning on moving the substrate from the 3 right away, so I moved the driftwood to the 2.5.


Then, I started scooping the substrate from the 3 into my 15. I must have put a ton of substrate in there, because I was making some progress.


About half of the tank had substrate...


And about half had rainbow gravel.
This is about the time when I decided to just scoop all the gravel out right now. I also remembered I had substrate in two 0.5 gallon containers, so I went and poured the water out of those (The only inhabitant was an assassin snail in one of them) And dumped the rest of that substrate in.
I had one accident involving me picking rainbow gravel up with my hands and putting it into the net I had been using. It worked great, until I forgot to empty the net and went to scoop more substrate from the 3... Whoops.
I'm just gonna leave it there, I don't care, lol.
So far, I need to finish moving the substrate from the 3 (there's still more!) and let the stuff from the two 0.5s dry a little more so I can finish dumping that in. I'm currently eating lunch, so I'll go take care of that once I'm done.


Most of the tank has substrate in it!

 

Looks good from what I read although just so you know, your filter media can be used to quickly cycle a tank. This IMO is better than BB from the gravel.

 

So, after lunch, I added the rest of the substrate from the 3 (I overestimated how much was in there lol) and the two 0.5s, and only had to take a large scoop of substrate from the 2.5.
I added some driftwood and one live plant (An anubis stuck to the driftwood) and some fake plants, again for the BB.

Looks good from what I read although just so you know, your filter media can be used to quickly cycle a tank. This IMO is better than BB from the gravel.

Ya, I know, but I didn't exactly have a functioning filter in the tank, which is part of why I'm re-doing it. I will be adding some filter media from the two smaller tanks, which should help, I think.

 

So, after lunch, I added the rest of the substrate from the 3 (I overestimated how much was in there lol) and the two 0.5s, and only had to take a large scoop of substrate from the 2.5.
I added some driftwood and one live plant (An anubis stuck to the driftwood) and some fake plants, again for the BB.

Ya, I know, but I didn't exactly have a functioning filter in the tank, which is part of why I'm re-doing it. I will be adding some filter media from the two smaller tanks, which should help, I think.

Yeah that would def help with the cycling. Any filter media helps a lot and you are using gravel which would also help. Do you by chance have porous rocks in your established tanks?

 

I have one volcano rock in my 5 gallon... I could def put that in there, if you think it would help.

 

I have one volcano rock in my 5 gallon... I could def put that in there, if you think it would help.

Yeah it would help cycle the tank and after a week or so you can take it out and put it back in your 5 gallon.

 

Pretty much anything with a high surface area can be a great source for BB to grow. That's why its preferred to use things like bio rings and stuff for filter media, and lava rock and gravel for things like substrate and hardscape for holding media.

 

Awesome Does driftwood work too? I added some of that from another tank, so would that help as well?

 

Awesome Does driftwood work too? I added some of that from another tank, so would that help as well?

Maybe, but it would help lower ph more I think.

 

Maybe, but it would help lower ph more I think.

I doubt driftwood would affect the ph.

Pretty much anything in an established tank has bacteria growing on it, but the majority is in the filter and substrate; adding decor and such from an established tank wont do much.

If you have sponge filters in other running tanks that you arent taking down, go ahead and squeeze all of the water and gunk out of them into the 15 gal. With cartridges and other types of filters, just washing the gunk into the 15 gallon will work too.

If your tank has been established for a while, as long as you don’t let the filter/substrate dry out you shouldn’t loose the cycle. If you are using a new filter, any source of bacteria from other established filters will help loads; I read somewhere that nitrifying bacteria can double over night (not sure if this is entirely true.) There may be a spike, but the tank will correct itself shortly.

 

I'm thinking there shouldn't be a spike, since there's no fish in the tank currently. I was going to add back fish over a period of time.
would that help?

 

Maybe, but it would help lower ph more I think.

Driftwood won't lower pH unless there is also very low kH (buffer) as well. I know this from experience as I tried to do a blackwater tank and had a super fun time trying to lower my pH because my tap water is really hard and has high kH.

 

Anything you add will help with bacteria. Deco, rocks, substrate etc. The media from the filter is the best though. I would put all of the media I could from the small tanks in the 15g filter. Just dont let it dry out, then it wont work. Then yes, slowly add fish.

 

Sounds good I guess I'll go do that now