Another Cycling Question Thread.

[Laura.p]

Okay, so I've been looking through all the cycling threads and beginners resource center.

I have a 30L tank with an Eheim 2210 aquaball filter suited to a 60-160L tank.

I am getting a Juwel Rio 180L tank next week.

I've read all the threads about cycling and how it's safer for fish, but then I read a thread about moving fish tanks to another house.

I wondered if it would be better to cycle the new tank or treat the new tank as though I'm moving house and run my current filter alongside the new filter with my fish?

It is still possible for me to run my current tank for as long as needed.
Plus if it is better to cycle my new tank, can someone tell me how to work out ppm?

Sorry for the utter noob questions.

 

[waterdrop]

By far the most effective way to take advantage of the bacteria you already have would be to remove some of the biomedia from the existing filter and "seed" the new filter with it to greatly speed up the fishless cycling of the new bigger tank. What is the current situation of the existing filter, is it still fishless cycling?

The best way to hone in on the ideal amount of your particular household ammonia is to first write down the amount the ammonia calculator suggests (its in our forum calculator at the top) (assume your ammonia is 9.5% if it doesn't say what it is) and then reduce that amount a little (25% or something easy, given the small amounts you may be working with) and do an initial tank dosing. Let it mix for 20 minutes and then see what concentration you actually got in the tank. Then begin to add a little more ammonia (keeping track in writing) and re-test. Once it looks like 4 or 5ppm then stop and plan to use that amount later on, once the bacteria have made their first reduction of your ammonia down to zero ppm. Keep an eye on how well your amount matches up with the 4-5ppm and modify if necessary. One important goal is to not let it get up to anything that looks like 8ppm as that will encourage a different species of bacteria.

~~waterdrop~~