Cycling - Transferring Media

[Curious_George]

Hi All
 
I'm a complete newbie to aquarium fish keeping.
 
I've had a 300 gallon fish pond in my garden for a couple of years, a few weeks ago my boss from work came round for a bbq, and having seen my fish, he's decided he wants me to bring back to life the aquarium in the company's office reception!
 
It's quite a nice tank, pic attached, about 125 liters, on a sturdy cabinet stand. It has old fluorescent lights, an air pump and internal filter all of which don't appear to work.
Currently no fish, there has been previously but all died fairly quickly, i'm guessing due to the poor set up and lack of knowledge of the person responsible.
 
My plan is a tropical tank.
Substrate and sand
Fluval 206 or 306 canister filter
Eheims jager heater
New fluorescent tunes E8 and ballast (do i need one?)
10-15 real plants
Stocked with mollies, guppies and cory catfish 5-6 of each.
 
I have a few questions 
 
I've read a bit about cycling,  really don't want any fish to die on me especially as its an office aquarium and i could sacked sacked lol 

I will probably go for fishless cycling, my question is can i use my garden fish pond filter to help - i have an external oase canister filter i was thinking would it be a good idea to put in the aquarium media alongside the pond media for 2-3 weeks whilst i'm sorting the aquarium, then transfer it back into the aquarium i'm ready to start the cycling in order to give my tank a head start, is this a good idea?
 
I've read over filtering is a good thing,  i'm thinking of using a fluval 306, though would this cause a too higher flow rate for a 125 liter tank, am i better of going for thew 206?
 
The fluorescent tubes need replacing, i've gone for 2 x 35w t8's, will i need a ballast, looking at the current set up there doesn't appear to be one, if i do need one are they tricky to wire in?
 
Final question 
 
Does my planned  fish stock look compatible?
 
Any thoughts appreciated
 
Thanks in advance
 
 
 

 

[fluttermoth]

You can certainly use your pond filter to help you cycle; it's the same bacteria in both

 
I'm not familiar with either of those filters, but bigger is nearly always better. You can reduce the flow a lot by using spray bars and/or pointing the outflow towards the back or sides of the tank.
 
I'm rubbish at electrics, so can't really advise you on that, I'm afraid!
 
As to your stocking; do you know if you have hard or soft water? Livebearers like platies, mollies and guppies do best in hard water; if yours is soft, you might be better of with one or two of the tetra species.
 
You definitely want to replace that gravel with sand if you're having corydoras; they do love to dig about in sand
 
If you do go for livebearers, I would very strongly advise you to have males only. While it's a lot of fun seeing them breed, and the fry growing up, they're so prolific (each female can have 30 or 40 babies every month!) that you can end up overstocked very quickly!

 

[Byron]

My advice would be to not use your pond filter media to transfer bacteria.  You may well transfer more than nitrifying bacteria, as there can be various types of bacteria and pathogens outdoors that should not be in an indoor aquarium.  This is practically guaranteed.
 
A bacterial supplement would be better here.  Plus you intend live plants, and they can silent cycle provided you have enough of the fast growers (floating plants work well for this) and very few fish to start with.
 
On the lights, if the present lights do work (light), then replacing the tubes may be all you need.  You can get tubes at home improvement stores, GE, Phillips, Sylvania.  The ones having a 6500K rating are best here.
 
One comment on the fish stock.  With livebearers if you have male/female you will have hundreds of fry to deal with (they will not all get eaten) so stay with males only in mollies and guppies.
 
Byron.