Cycling With Mature Media

[Didge007]

I am cycling my new 200L with mature media from my other tanks but I am now confused. Should I be feeding the bacteria? I just popped the pieces in the filter & filled it up four weeks later I've still had no nitrate readings & I assumed I should. I know I won't have ammonia or nitrite readings.

 

[ctsv510]

Yes, you need to continue to feed the bacteria from the mature media or it dies. You should put ammonia in the new cycling tank within a couple hours of introducing the mature media. This, of course, is assuming you are doing a fishless cycle.

 

[fluttermoth]

Agreed. I'm afraid nearly all, if not all, of the bacteria from the mature media will have died off with lack of food by now

If you start a tank with mature media, you need to either feed the bacteria with ammonia or fish food, or add a small amount of fish right away.

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Yeah, the idea of cycling a tank with mature media is that you don't really have to cycle at all.
Here's the thing, you never really "cycle a tank", you cycle your filter media. If it is already mature you should be fine to add fish right away and treat the tank as if it has just been cycled by other means. Add your fish slowly check you water stats regularly and do water changes if necessary.

 

[Didge007]

#41####! I wasted my mature media. Any ideas where I can actually buy Ammonia? I have never seen it for sale in Australia.

 

[fluttermoth]

Just swap the media you put in the new tank with some (up to a third) of the stuff in your cycled tank, then you can add fish right away; up to the amount of fish it was previously supporting. So, if your tank has 30 neons in it, and you take a third of the media, you can put 6 or 8 neons in the new tank.

Test often and feed sparingly for the first week in case the bacterial colony dies back a little with the move and gives you a mini-cycle.

 

[Didge007]

Will try to buy sand this weekend and I will do that. Thanks for your help