Anyone Want To Help Me With A Bit Of An Experiment...

[Curiosity101]

Something I've been thinking about for awhile.

Would filter gunk from my filter, if posted out overnight, help to cycle a tank.

If so, how much would it speed up the cycle?

I'm so fed up of people being lured into buying rubbish filter boosts. And would like to know exactly how effective it would be to bottle up my own filter stuff and post it out.

My plan is...
Get a 50ml plastic bottle and fill it with gunk n water from the filter.
Package in an envelope with some ice (in a plastic bag to avoid leakage)
Send off 1st class

Get someone to test it at the other end.
So does anyone fancy helping me out here. I'll obviously cover the costs of sending n such. But obviously the person at the other end needs to know how to do a fishless cycle, and be setting up a new tank in the near

So, what do we think? Has this been done before...?
I know people send filter media through the post, but this is something a bit different.

 

[lilacamy931]

that would be really interesting to find out! I would love to help but no tanks need setting up at the moment. If no one aids in say a week, let me know and have a small glass tank acquired recently that can get a cheap filter for to test and see.

 

[deathy]

as far as im aware as long as you use the same water you should be fine for approx 2 weeks, but dont use ice cos if it gets to cold it will kill it all

 

[matchstickman47]

you should have asked two about 3 weeks ago when i got my 30 litre

 

[Curiosity101]

At lilcamy - This is exactly why I'm doing it, just as it will be interesting to see if it works. And have some ACTUAL results to back it up.

At deathy - What do you mean I would be fine for approx 2 weeks? And actually the bacteria will live down to around 2 degrees. This isn't a problem, the problem is more likely to be that the bacteria will die due to metabolising all the ammonia and using all of the oxygen before reaching their destination, so dying off too quickly.

At matchstickman - Lol, sorry. Only just decided to do it today.

I've costed up sending it out.
Should cost roughly £2.76 per bottle and that's including postage.
I certainly don't mind paying that to see the results.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I'm on day three of my fishless cycle at the moment with no movement yet on the ammonia side of things - you can gladly send me a bottle and I will pour it into my filter and let you know the results.

 

[mixmaster jay]

your name is living upto you lol im also curious on this one ive got loads of filter media in my sump for my pond when i do a change on that and that seems to work ok

 

[Curiosity101]

Well we all know that giving someone actual filter media works.

And that posting filter media is a bit hit n miss.

I'd just like to try this method. And also have an accurate set of results to really be able to say it either works or doesn't.
If it seems to work then I will bottle up another 3 bottles, with promises the recipients will do the same as the first person. Then if it seems to have worked for eveyone... we will have a reasonably accurate conclusion



To Tropical Fish - Thanks for the offer, and this may sound rather bad....but I would rather the person I send the bottle too have experienced a fishless cycle the whole way through before. Just to avoid any mis-haps.

 

[bagu]

i like your idea alot; but i think sponge would be effective. I mean it may take a while to start up the sponge but its a guaranteed biological filter and just use cloning for it to work full power

Also, when you mean gunk, what is that exactly?

Bagu

 

[Tropical_Fish]

No problem - I will be testing regularly though and keeping a log on here so should have the advice / experience of the forum

 

[Curiosity101]

Gunk = After I have removed all the media from my external and swished it around in the dirt water, fill a 50ml bottle with the contents.

I'm aware it might not work as the bacteria attach themselves to the surface of the actual filter media. But I'm not asking for anything other than someone keep accurate and regular results. As in ACTUAL proper test results. However, if you bare in mind that bacteria will grow exponentially if the conditions are correct, I only need to be able to transport a small amount of viable bacteria to give enough to quickly cycle the tank.

I've seen plenty of people recieve mature media and just go 'oh well it didn't instantly cycle my tank so nevermind', I've never seen them still finish a full fishless cycle.

If the bottle doesn't work then I shall be posting out a bit of media and asking someone to do the same as the bottled method. I'm genuinely just interested, and want some relatively accurate scientific results.

 

[m00se]

I'm setting up a new 25gal next week for some dwarf puffs. I'm more than happy to participate in some actual science (although of course for real, proper experimentation, I should have two identical tanks, kept in the same room, in the same conditions, at the same time, with the same tests, etc., one I used your gunk in, and one I didn't).

I'll let you know when the tank is ready, and we shall have ourselves a little look-see

 

[Curiosity101]

Lol...well if I promise not to put on my lab coat, sterilise the bottles and set an updraft as I take my sample...I think we can get away with not using a 'control' tank.
I'll just go on rough fishless cycling results with no booster. I'm sure I can find plenty on this forum.
Have you already done a fishless cycle and will roughly be able to test every 24 hours and then every 12 hours as per test results dictate?

 

[m00se]

Yup, did it on my big tank just recently.

You know, it occurs to me that if we wanted to be super scientific about this, I could talk to one of my friends who works in the microbiology lab at work and get him to culture the bottle contents, see if anything's alive in there

 

[lilacamy931]

well if you need if you need more test subjects later me PM me! Just need to find the source of ammonia and can test daily at 7:30 am and pm.