Filter And Substrates From A Cycled Tank

[garrym1983]

My brother in law has a monster of an aquarium, its basically an indoor swimming pool!!! the tank has been established for years and having read some articles on the benefits of introducing cycled media to an uncycled tank, im going to do just that. Im looking to source some gravel and hopefully some filter media. Just wondered if there was anything else i should be doing while the cycled media is in my tank??

 

[fluttermoth]

The most important thing when using mature/cycled media is that you must, must, must either add fish (being careful not to overstock; for example, if your BIL had 20 neon tetras, and gave you a 1/4 of his media, you could add four or five neons or similar sized fish to your tank) or another source of ammonia as soon as possible or the bacteria will die off.

I've seen so many people say "I put some used media in the filter and ran the tank for two weeks" and that's useless, as all the bacteria will have starved by then!

The gravel won't do you much good (unless it's a UG filter!), you really need some actual media from his filter.

 

[the_lock_man]

Yeah, don't bother with the gravel unless both your tank AND his tank have undergravel filters.

 

[garrym1983]

hasnt got a UG filter so take it the gravel ive got is useless then. It was only yesterday when asking about cycling that i was advised to do 90% water changes, the question i posed was "will that remove the bacteria i need" to which the reply stated that bacteria clings to my filter and my gravel!!??!!


confused.com!!

 

[BigbruiserAl]

A tank running a internal or external filter will have 99% of the bacteria in the filter the other 1% will be in the water Colum and gravel or decs.

A tank running a UGF undergravel filter will house that 99% in the gravel as thats how they work hence under gravel

 

[garrym1983]

ok, if i get filter media do i put it inside my filter or just have it in the water in a cotton stocking for example

 

[Tizer]

you put it in your filter, if its sponge media, you cut it to fit, if its any other media, just shove it in the trays etc. Bacteria need oxygen to survive, thats what the filter is for, it sucks water through it, the bacteria use the oxgyen in the water column as it passes them. if its stuck in a stocking and out of the water flow, it wont survive well.