Cycling A New 30 Gallon

[Jallen]

Ok, so I've got a new 30g tank (3ft ) recently, and I've set it up, placing in the sandy gravel stuff, the internal filter (with a spray bar going across 2/3 of the aquarium) and the heater.

I have a 15 gallon tank already which has been running for about 4 months with fish.

I would like to get fish swimming in this new tank as fast as possible really, and I've heard that existing media can get the filter cycled in a week (that would be great). The problem is that I cannot put the 30g filter in the 15g, as all the fish would get squashed against the side by its high pressure. The filters are completely different, though the 15g has gravel to spare (which I could put in a net in the tank?) and rocks which I want to transfer across anyway (so I guess that would do some good?) plus, I could rinse off the carbon filter sponge in the 15g and put it in the 30g just to float around, as I assume that would do some good?

What do you recommend bearing in mind I want to get this tank ready as soon as possible? Oh yeah, first fish to be added will be guppies, and I've heard they are really hardy, so I guess they could actually withstand some ammonia and I could kind of do most of the cycling without fish, but just finish off the process with fish in?

Do I still need ammonia If i use established media? Can I put some guppies in with the established media and expect them to be ok?

Oh yeah, does tap water dechlorinate after 24 hours?

Thanks.

 

[Corleone]

Usually you don't need ammonia when using mature media, but you do have to keep in mind that you can't add quite so much, especially when seeding from a smaller tank. It should be able to safely support a third to a half as much fish as the tank you're seeding from, though, and you can increase slowly from there. If you want a bigger stock than that, proceeding with a fishless cycle should take considerably less time using mature media from the 15 - I've found even a very small amount of mature media really speeds the first part of the cycle, and you might never get a major nitrite spike.

Fancy guppies actually tend to be quite fragile, but they don't require a mature tank, just a cycled one. As long as you don't exceed what the media can handle, you should be able to start out with guppies easily.

 

[Jallen]

Oh yeah, I have some chinese algae eaters who appear to be ridiculously hardy, so they can be my added ammonia (If they die, they die. I bought them thinking they were community fish and now they are living in a little coldwater tank by themselfs)