Cycling A Second Tank

[chrisbassist]

Hi, I'm thinking about setting up a second,slightly smaller tank once the main one is finished, is there an easy and quick way of cycling a second tank?

can you use the water from an established tank to fill the second?

I was thinking about upgrading the filter in the main tank which would mean running both filters until the upgrade is full of the bacteria, so I was thinking about filling the second tank with water from the main tank, and putting the old filter in there...

would that mean I'd have a fully cycled new tank with no need to wait? all ready for fish?

 

[Cossie333]

u could take half the water from the new one or take some of the bacteria from the cycled one and put it in the new one it will speed it up lol

 

[fatheadminnow]

u could take half the water from the new one or take some of the bacteria from the cycled one and put it in the new one it will speed it up lol

Moving water over will not do anything because the bacteria colonize in the filter, NOT in the water.

The best way to kick starting a new tank, is transfer some MM (mature media) over from a cycled tank and place it into a filter on a tank that you are going to cycle. Do not tank any more than 1/3 of the media out of your cycled filter at a time, and make sure you replace the newly emptied space with some new media.

-FHM

 

[chrisbassist]

I was thinking more along the lines of moving the entire filter, not just media.

since currently running an internal and want to upgrade to external, and once the external has enough bacteria, moving the internal one over to a new tank.

and how long would it take for a new filter to aquire the levels of bacteria needed when running alongside a fully established filter? would it take longer than a standard cycle,or will it be quicker?

the main reason at the mo for wanting a second tank is as a quarantine (or if i were to ever accidentally get any fry, somewhere to separate them until I can figure out what to do with them... maybe take them to LFS or something)

 

[fatheadminnow]

For a quarantine tank then, just run a filter along side in your main tank, and when ever you need it, just pop it in your quarantine tank. It takes at least 1 month for a filter to acquire bacteria when ran along side a fully cycled filter.

-FHM

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with FHM. Running a second, smaller filter during the fishless cycling of your main tank should be a perfectly ok way to have your Q-tank filter ready without a second cycling needed. Be aware that at the end of fishless cycling the total biological filtration system is still pretty fragile and marginal so if you take the little filter away right at that time, you could have some mini-spikes in your first stocking period but if you wait a while and let the two filters keep going some weeks with the first batch of fish you should be ok.

~~waterdrop~~