Another Cycling Question

[joecoral]

ammonia added 10 days ago to 5ppm-ish, and i have seen little if any decrease in the ammonia level since. tank temperature is approximately 26C, all thats in tank currently is sand, glass thermometer and filter inlet/outlet
once cycling is complete i am planning to transfer the contents of my previous tank over, so my question is this:
if i were to stuff the 2 filter sponges from the fluval 2+ in my current tank into my new eheim 2026 which is currently cycling, would this be sufficient bacteria to support the contents of my old tank (5 harlequins 5 danios 1 cory 2 cherry barbs), and if i wanted to do this, would i have to drain the tank to remove all the ammonia and fill afresh, as i would want to transfer the fish straight away
or even, could i run the 2 filters side by side in the new tank until my new cannister had cycled? if so how long would this take?

I am thinking my best option is to completely drain and refill the tank to remove the ammonia and then run the 2 filters side by side for several weeks until the new one is cycled

i know it seems like its just me being impatient, but i am away for 2 weeks in 2 weeks time so i wont be around to check parameters and feed with ammonia so dont want the cycle to halt and have to restart, and i want to get my old tank shut down and the fish transfered reasonably soon

what does everyone think?

 

[rdd1952]

so my question is this:
if i were to stuff the 2 filter sponges from the fluval 2+ in my current tank into my new eheim 2026 which is currently cycling, would this be sufficient bacteria to support the contents of my old tank (5 harlequins 5 danios 1 cory 2 cherry barbs), and if i wanted to do this, would i have to drain the tank to remove all the ammonia and fill afresh, as i would want to transfer the fish straight away

The short answers are yes and yes. You could move all the filter over and move the fish too as the filter is already cycled for the fish you have. You shouldn't hae any problems if you move the media.You could run the old filter side by side with the new one but moving the media wold work better and mean less holes you have to cut in the tank lid.

As far as the new tank is concerned, you would definitely have to drain the tank to get rid of the ammonia. Actually, I think I would drain it, refill and test the ammonia and nitrite. If they are high enough to register on your test kit, then I would drain again do get rid of any more ammonia and nitrite.

 

[joecoral]

the cycled filter is a fluval 2+ internal so wouldnt require any holes to be cut.
if i ran the filters side by side how long would i have to leave the cycled one in before it could be removed?
and wouldnt doing this mean the new filter would only have half the neccessary bacteria as it would be sharing the job with the already cycled filter?
sorry if this sounds stupid
JC

 

[rdd1952]

Actually, it makes perfect sense. Sorry, I wasn't thinking on the internal filter. I would say it woule take about 4 weeks for the bacteria to balance out and even then it wouldn't be a true balance. The filter processing the most water would house the most bacteria since more ammonia and nitrite would pass through it. And you are right that the new filter would still only contain part of the bacteria depending on flow rate as mentioned. But bacteria can double their mass in about 24 hours so if you remove half the bacteria, it will replenish in a day.

 

[joecoral]

ok, thats great, thanks rdd1952!