Cycling New Tank Using Mature Filter/gravel/plants From Established Ta

[Bm05891]

Hi guys!
So I have a large, very well established tank (like 6 years) and am setting up a new 15g tank to transfer a pair of breeding kribensis into. My question is how long should I wait before introducing the pair into the new tank if I cycle it using 100% gravel from previous established tank, mature filter media and live plants also transferred from my large established tank? Thanks!!!!

 

[Chad]

In my experience it's pretty much immediately. The bacteria is what's required so if you have that then you're good to go.

 

[bricko]

Yep,  Add some media from your old filter into the new one, dechlorinate the tank water, put the filter on and get upto temp then you are good to go.
 
I have previously done this and used water from the old tank to top the new tank to save waiting to warm the water even,

 

[Lunar Jetman]

What are the measurements of this tank? 15g seems a little small to me for a pair of Kribs, even if they are on their own. I guess it depends on how well they get on together over the particular brood. My current pair shared parental responsibility for the last batch of fry but the previous one the female chased the male away whenever he came near so he needed space to retreat into.

 

[Bm05891]

I still have my large community tank to transfer him back to if she gets nasty! I chose to setup a new tank for them to breed in because my large pakistani loach and small knife fish seem to always try to push them out of their caves ( not agressively) the kribs are just too small to throw their weight around Thanks for the feedback everyone!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Here is a simple trick you can use to answer this question for any similar situation. It will work with a 5 or a 500 gal. tank. Get hold of ammonia and dose the tank to 2 ppm. Wait 24 and test. If you are not at 0/0, consider you have begun a fishless cycle with a well seeded tank. Test daily and when you hit 0/0 add the same dose to amount again and repeat the process.
 
You can try to short circuit the process and dose 1 ppm and test in under 12 hours.
 
This is an adaptation from my early days of fishless cycling where the dosing method was so many drops/gal. and we never thought about ammonia strength etc. I used to dose 4 drops of ammonia for each 10 gals of water and then test in a few hours. Things were a lot less precise then

 

[FishyWishie]

In my experience it's pretty much immediately. The bacteria is what's required so if you have that then you're good to go.

 
100% agree I took 50% of the media from my Eheim Pro 3 20280 to start my new FX6 on a another tank and it handled the waste of 7 Angels and 30 Pettitella Georgiae without blinking (Of course I was regularly testing the water and ready to do a water change immediately if it proved to be required)
 
If your only adding a pair of kribs and using 100% mature media I honestly cannot imagine you have any issues at all.