Starting New Cycle! Help

Hello everyone
I have a cycled 13 gallon tank and a new 55 gallon tank with no water currently. I want to know what to do about stating a new cycle. Should I start a new cycle in the new 55 g? Or should I somehow use the tank than is already cycled to start my new cycle? Any help would be great!
Happy Holidays!

 

Welcome! I'm kinda new at this but from what all I've read you can take some of the media from filter in cycled tank to use in filter of new tank. This will help greatly with beginning cycle of new tank. Hopefully others will chime in soon with more info

 

I agree with Cinimin. I think some media from the 13 gallon may help but since it is quite a bit smaller than 55 gallon, you would need to decide to do a fish less cycle with ammonia drops or fish in with tetra safe start. You can search the forum archives for good information on both kinds of cycling. You don't want to use too much media from your 13 gallon to cause a problem with it. Good luck!

 

You can use some of the media from your cycled tank to start cycling the 55, put it in the filter and add some food to keep the bacteria feed. Check the water parameters with a test kit. The API Master Test Kit is the one most of us use. There is plenty of info here on tank cycling.

 

Agreed that you can use some of the media from your cycled tank to help jumpstart the cycle. You will need an ammonia source. Personally, I prefer fishless cycle with ammonia so if things go wrong I don't have fish in danger. I use media from cycled tank and tetra safe start (added 24 hours after dechlorinator) and then pretty much follow the "add and wait" method in the following link:
Ammonia instructions for a fishless cycle

Here is some additional info on the nitrogen cycle:
Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

You can do a fish in cycle in which the fish are your ammonia source using tetra safe start plus or seachem stability.

IMO fish food is not a stable source of ammonia as it is too hard to measure and control ammonia levels.

Let us know your preference and we can help guide you.

Happy Holidays!

 

Thank you everyone! I'll be doing a fishless cycle. The only problem is that the filter in my 13 g is a HOB with bio bag, meaning I can't get to the media. Any suggestions?

 

The part of the media you really need is the floss where most of the bacteria is, the carbon really doesn't help you.

 

The part of the media you really need is the floss where most of the bacteria is, the carbon really doesn't help you.

What would the floss be? Could u take a picture of yours so I can see? I don't think I have floss I'm pretty sure it's just a bag of media than I can't take apart

 

The floss is the bag, the carbon should be on the inside. Unfortunately I no longer have any HOB filters, I run canisters now.

 

Does the bag have ceramic rings or bio balls in it or is it just a carbon filter?
Tell us the brand and model and we can look it up.

 

Does the bag have ceramic rings or bio balls in it or is it just a carbon filter?
Tell us the brand and model and we can look it up.

I think it's just carbon- Aqueon quiet flow filter

 

Yeah, those just have the cartridge and plastic grids. I think the larger ones have little sponges in the blue plastic grid. You could replace one of those with a new one and place old one in the new filter for the 55.

It won't be much so adding tetra safe start or stability would help a lot.

My personal recommendation is to get a better filter than aqueon for your 55. Look for one that has 550 gph (gallons per hour). Let us know if you prefer HOB (hang on back) or canister and I am sure you will get lots of recommendations.
I use both aqua clear and marineland penguins. On my 55 I have a penguin 300 (300goh) and a 5 stage canister filter (500 gph) that is a sunsun generic off Amazon. I also have a power head with a sponge on the intake hooked to pvc pipe with jets to keep the water movement. It is a fully stocked cichlid tank so it needs good filtration and movement.

 

Yeah, those just have the cartridge and plastic grids. I think the larger ones have little sponges in the blue plastic grid. You could replace one of those with a new one and place old one in the new filter for the 55.

It won't be much so adding tetra safe start or stability would help a lot.

My personal recommendation is to get a better filter than aqueon for your 55. Look for one that has 550 gph (gallons per hour). Let us know if you prefer HOB (hang on back) or canister and I am sure you will get lots of recommendations.
I use both aqua clear and marineland penguins. On my 55 I have a penguin 300 (300goh) and a 5 stage canister filter (500 gph) that is a sunsun generic off Amazon. I also have a power head with a sponge on the intake hooked to pvc pipe with jets to keep the water movement. It is a fully stocked cichlid tank so it needs good filtration and movement.

Okay thanks! The aqueon is for my 13g, my 55 has the penguin 350 and a dual sponge filter. If I remove and replace the cartridge from the 13 g filter will the ruin my cycle?

 

Okay thanks! The aqueon is for my 13g, my 55 has the penguin 350 and a dual sponge filter. If I remove and replace the cartridge from the 13 g filter will the ruin my cycle?

Maybe. The blue grids are supposed to have bacteria so maybe not.....
I will let others chime in their opinion on this question.

 

Are you going to move the fish out of the 13 to the 55? If you are you can bring the filter over for a month to get the penguin seeded. Then if you you decide to place fish back in the 13 move the filter back over. The smaller filters usually only have one cartridge to them from what I have seen. Like I was saying I use canisters especially after the tank hits the 55 size.

 

Which Aqueon Quietflow filter do you have on your 13g; 10 or 20?

What you could do is get some filter floss and/or some bio-media and put that in your Aqueon filter to let some of the BB grow on that, and then move that to the new filter. Not sure how long it would take for the BB to establish in the extra materials though.

I have a Penguin 100B in my 10 gallon tank with extra filter floss, bio-max, and Seachem matrix in it.

I plan on taking the extra floss and matrix and placing it in an Aqueoun Quietflow 30 filter to help seed it.
I also plan on doing the modification that CindiL does with her Quietflow filters.

Don't move your current filter material to the new filter, you'll risk losing your cycle.

 

Are you going to move the fish out of the 13 to the 55? If you are you can bring the filter over for a month to get the penguin seeded. Then if you you decide to place fish back in the 13 move the filter back over. The smaller filters usually only have one cartridge to them from what I have seen. Like I was saying I use canisters especially after the tank hits the 55 size.

The 13 gallon will be staying up, thanks for the input though!

 

Which Aqueon Quietflow filter do you have on your 13g; 10 or 20?

What you could do is get some filter floss and/or some bio-media and put that in your Aqueon filter to let some of the BB grow on that, and then move that to the new filter. Not sure how long it would take for the BB to establish in the extra materials though.

I have a Penguin 100B in my 10 gallon tank with extra filter floss, bio-max, and Seachem matrix in it.

I plan on taking the extra floss and matrix and placing it in an Aqueoun Quietflow 30 filter to help seed it.
I also plan on doing the modification that CindiL does with her Quietflow filters.

Don't move your current filter material to the new filter, you'll risk losing your cycle.

Yeh filter is a 10-- Thanks for the help! I'll try to see if that works