I think that should work. I've never tried this but the logic is all there. Give it a go. Of course, the filters themselves will be miss a good layer of bacteria, but your sponges should have plenty enough to start up.
It might work.
The problem is that you can only put a certain concentration of ammonia in the tank, otherwise you encourage the growth of the wrong sort of bacteria. Also, you have no way of controlling where the bacteria grows, so you might find that one filter has absolutely no bacteria in it at all.
If you were to try it in a large tank, you may well find that the filter for the smallest tank was properly cycled, but you may well find that the filter for the largest is not even nearly cycled.
I would suggest you start the process off , then when you get the individual tanks, continue the process in each tank individually for a week to see how things are going.
The problem is that you can only put a certain concentration of ammonia in the tank, otherwise you encourage the growth of the wrong sort of bacteria. Also, you have no way of controlling where the bacteria grows, so you might find that one filter has absolutely no bacteria in it at all.
If you were to try it in a large tank, you may well find that the filter for the smallest tank was properly cycled, but you may well find that the filter for the largest is not even nearly cycled.
I would suggest you start the process off , then when you get the individual tanks, continue the process in each tank individually for a week to see how things are going.
It also doesn't do anything for the biofilm in the target tank, which is a part of the tank maturation process that is often overlooked as we, with good reason, concentrate of the filter.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I did this in a somewhat different fashion. I needed to get sponges going into a 55 gal. tank cycled to function at pH6.0 and I had to do this in a 20 gal tank. So I had a two step process. 1st I had to get the sponges cycled to handle a 55 gal bio-load in the 20 gal and then I had to gradually drop the pH from 7 to 6 and have the cycle hold.
One thing that made the process easier was I started by using bottled bacteria (this had to be done for other considerations.. The 20 gal had 3 sponge filters put into the tank with a thin layer of sand and a heater. The sand was supposed to go into the final tank along with the sponges. I felt the sand would insure nothing in the bottle went to waste. also used ammonium chloride in a pre-mixed solution such that one drop of the solution in one gal. of water would create 2 ppm of ammonia. This makes it a lot easier to end up putting enough into a 20 gal tank to feed a 55 gal set of filters.
In order to get cycled at 7.0, I dosed enough bottled bacteria for a about a 30 gal. tank and then dosed 30 drops of the ammonium chloride and proceeded to complete a fishless cycle which took under a week. The next step was to start to increase the ammonia dosing to move it up to 55+ drops. This was pretty simple, I just ramped up the dosing in a couple of steps till I was dosing about 60 drops and processing it all within 24 hours. While I did not test the ammonia levels to know what they were, I did test to know when it was at 0 so I could dose again.
Once I had the tank filters processing a 55 gal tanks worth of ammonia I began the second phase which involved dropping the pH to 6.0 in stages each of which required a pause to allow the bacteria to adapt to the lower pH and come back up to strength.
This was a great plan and it would have worked great had the tank those filters were destined for had not cycled itself during the same period. The plan was to start the tank at pH 4.2 and raise it over time to 6.0 to coincide with the filters becoming cycled at 6.0 and just moving them in. This was a several month project because of the pH issues. I would go much faster and more efficiently without the pH considerations.
I have done a bit of reading a while back on one of Dr. Hovanec's sites. He cultures and sells nitrifying bacteria. I failed to bookmark and have not been able to go back. However, what struck me the most was how much ammonia saw going in. It made me do a double take. Don't hold me to this, but I recall the dosing was to 8 ppm Ammonia-n. This level would normally stall a cycle in a tank. In a going farm, enough would get consumed fast enough to prevent this while still encouraging bacteria to reproduce. I would not try for this level myself.
But consider what is going on. He is trying to make as much bacteria as possible so it can be bottled and sold. He grows it on a fine solid particle so it forms a biofilm. In order to keep colonies multiplying they need to be fed more ammonia than they need so they need plenty of O and carbon (as KH) as well. If you want to cycle filters in a smaller space to be able to handle a bigger one (i.e. big bio-load) you need to ramp up the ammonia. Don't forget to run things at in the 80sF (29-30C) and without lighting.
The difference between what you want to do and a bio-farm is that you have an end point and a farm doesn't. If you do not use the ammonium chloride method as I did, then you will have to use the ammonia charts. Start out at a level about equal to the cycling tank size itself and get it cycled, then start to ramp the ammonia dosing up until you handle the ml dose that you would use were you simply doing a normal fishless cycle in a tank equal to all those into which you will ultimately add the filters. It doesn't hurt to go further to be sure
The one issue you will have is not being certain how much bacteria is living in each sponge. Try to use similar sized sponges and have them running at similar flow rates. I think your biggest concern will be how you start the cycle in terms of seeding. Just dropping in media or gravel from another tank will not give you an even start in the new sponges. I felt that the starter culture I used helped in this respect as all sponges would have an equal chance to "capture" some from the outset.
Bear in mind when running a bio-farm that there should usually be a substantial ammonia reading in the farm tank, this is the only way to get the bacterial colonies to keep growing. The trick is to insure the level isn't high enough to have an adverse effect.
One thing that made the process easier was I started by using bottled bacteria (this had to be done for other considerations.. The 20 gal had 3 sponge filters put into the tank with a thin layer of sand and a heater. The sand was supposed to go into the final tank along with the sponges. I felt the sand would insure nothing in the bottle went to waste. also used ammonium chloride in a pre-mixed solution such that one drop of the solution in one gal. of water would create 2 ppm of ammonia. This makes it a lot easier to end up putting enough into a 20 gal tank to feed a 55 gal set of filters.
In order to get cycled at 7.0, I dosed enough bottled bacteria for a about a 30 gal. tank and then dosed 30 drops of the ammonium chloride and proceeded to complete a fishless cycle which took under a week. The next step was to start to increase the ammonia dosing to move it up to 55+ drops. This was pretty simple, I just ramped up the dosing in a couple of steps till I was dosing about 60 drops and processing it all within 24 hours. While I did not test the ammonia levels to know what they were, I did test to know when it was at 0 so I could dose again.
Once I had the tank filters processing a 55 gal tanks worth of ammonia I began the second phase which involved dropping the pH to 6.0 in stages each of which required a pause to allow the bacteria to adapt to the lower pH and come back up to strength.
This was a great plan and it would have worked great had the tank those filters were destined for had not cycled itself during the same period. The plan was to start the tank at pH 4.2 and raise it over time to 6.0 to coincide with the filters becoming cycled at 6.0 and just moving them in. This was a several month project because of the pH issues. I would go much faster and more efficiently without the pH considerations.
I have done a bit of reading a while back on one of Dr. Hovanec's sites. He cultures and sells nitrifying bacteria. I failed to bookmark and have not been able to go back. However, what struck me the most was how much ammonia saw going in. It made me do a double take. Don't hold me to this, but I recall the dosing was to 8 ppm Ammonia-n. This level would normally stall a cycle in a tank. In a going farm, enough would get consumed fast enough to prevent this while still encouraging bacteria to reproduce. I would not try for this level myself.
But consider what is going on. He is trying to make as much bacteria as possible so it can be bottled and sold. He grows it on a fine solid particle so it forms a biofilm. In order to keep colonies multiplying they need to be fed more ammonia than they need so they need plenty of O and carbon (as KH) as well. If you want to cycle filters in a smaller space to be able to handle a bigger one (i.e. big bio-load) you need to ramp up the ammonia. Don't forget to run things at in the 80sF (29-30C) and without lighting.
The difference between what you want to do and a bio-farm is that you have an end point and a farm doesn't. If you do not use the ammonium chloride method as I did, then you will have to use the ammonia charts. Start out at a level about equal to the cycling tank size itself and get it cycled, then start to ramp the ammonia dosing up until you handle the ml dose that you would use were you simply doing a normal fishless cycle in a tank equal to all those into which you will ultimately add the filters. It doesn't hurt to go further to be sure
The one issue you will have is not being certain how much bacteria is living in each sponge. Try to use similar sized sponges and have them running at similar flow rates. I think your biggest concern will be how you start the cycle in terms of seeding. Just dropping in media or gravel from another tank will not give you an even start in the new sponges. I felt that the starter culture I used helped in this respect as all sponges would have an equal chance to "capture" some from the outset.
Bear in mind when running a bio-farm that there should usually be a substantial ammonia reading in the farm tank, this is the only way to get the bacterial colonies to keep growing. The trick is to insure the level isn't high enough to have an adverse effect.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
I am now doing the reverse. I am taking down tanks and am putting all the filters onto one tank and dosing 3 to 4 times the normal dose for the gal. of the tank. My Goal is to be able to sell the filters well cycled. On a 20 gal. tank are 2 AquaClear 100 gph, 2 AquaClear 150 gph and an air driven 30 ppi Poret foam. I dosed about 75 drops of Dr. Times Ammonium Chloride, I did not test.
All the decor went with the fish into larger tanks, so the filter farm is bare. It has a bag of crushed coral to keep the carbonates up.
All the decor went with the fish into larger tanks, so the filter farm is bare. It has a bag of crushed coral to keep the carbonates up.
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