Clone Filter Or Use Ammonia?

[dirtydog]

Guys do you think i will be better off cycling with ammonia or trying to clone my filter in my other tank.
my new tank is a 36" (100l ish). I have just bought I fluval 204 external filter which should arrive soon. my current tank is a 30" with a fluval 3+. Would it be worth trying to clone it or start fresh and which will give a quicker cycle?

cheers

 

[dirtydog]

bump

 

[Sysiphus]

Well I did both I suppose. Took filter material and about half the substrate from an existing tank and did the fishless cycle. In a 90 gal it was done in about 3 weeks. I thought that was super time. Used the following formula:

Add ammonia to the tank initially to obtain a reading on ammonia kit of ~5 ppm. Recorded the amount of ammonia that this took, then add that amount daily until the nitrite spikes. Once the nitrite was visible, cut back the daily dose of ammonia to ½ the original volume. One advantage of this method is that the ammonia spike occurs immediately... when adding 4-5 drops/10 gal/day, it could take 4-5 days before the ammonia reaches the same levels. This resulted in an acceleration of the entire process for me, your spike time may vary....

Good Luck to you!

 

[rdd1952]

Both would be best. The cloned tank will only be partially cycled, depending on how much of the media you moved. If you clone it and then add ammonia, it shouldn't take long at all for the tank to completely cycle. If you just clone it and then add fish, the bacteria will still have to catch up with their waste.

 

[Tolak]

It depends on what you plan on stocking the new tank with, and how long the first tank has been running. Nitrifying bacteria in a mature bio filter will double in about 24 hours, this is how folks get by with changing out half their bio media for new media. I clone tanks all the time.

If you have a mature tank, don't feed at all for 24 hours before removing 1/3 to 1/2 of the bio media, then add bio media to the new tank. Less food means les waste produced, giving the bio media less of a load to deal with.

 

[dirtydog]

ok cheers guys
not sure if ill have space actually to put the external filter on my other tank (been running since dec) so I might go the ammonia only route. ill let you know how it goes.