Filter Media How Long

[Jack sparrow]

Hello all
 
A mate of mine has just bought a new Jewel Rio 180, I have taken the filters and put them in my external filter so he can speed the cycle process up. How long will I need to leave them in my filter to get them established before I put them back in his internal filter housing?
 
Cheers
Jack

 

[the_lock_man]

Not the right thing to do. Think about it logically. You have a finite level of fish in your tank, producing a finite amount of ammonia (give or take a bit). Therefore your filter has a finite number of bacteria in it to cope with that finite amount of ammonia. There isn't enough ammonia to support larger colonies.
 
Why are the bacteria going to decide "Ooh, look, here's another bit of filter media, let's go and live on that instead"? Answer is, they aren't. You would need to leave the media in there for a good 6-8 weeks to produce any significant colonies on the new media.
 
A better idea is to take most of the new media back out, along with a proportion of your established media equal to the amount of new media you left in there. GIve it back to your mate, get him doing a fishless cycle, and he'll probably do it in a week or 3. In the meantime, your bacteria colonies, being well established, will recolonise the new media to replace the bacteria you have taken out.

 

[Jack sparrow]

Thanks for that mate, sounds logical now that you explain it that way.
 
Edited to add. The problem your way though is the filters are totally different, my filter will not fit into his internal filter?
 
Kind Regards
Jack

 

[the_lock_man]

Sponges can be cut about to make them fit.

 

[Jack sparrow]

Thats fine mate, thats what I will do. once again thank you for your prompt and logical reply.
 
Kind Regards
Jack

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually what lock says isn't quite true. The bacteria, while they do tend to stay put, are not welded in place. If they were, it would not be possible to cycle a tank if you think about it. If you have nothing from a cycled tank and you don't add a bottled bacterial product, from where do the bacteria come? How could one ever cycle a tank?
 
There are two answers. There are some small number of bacteria that may be free floating because they have not yet attached or because they have become unattached. Also, the bio-film is able to be dislodged by flow. This is especially true in places where the biofilm has built up to a level that is too thick. And this makes it easier to dislodge bits or even w hole "clump."
 
The other factor to keep in mind as that the bacteria will always end up doing best where the the conditions for them are best. That means where they can get ammonia/nitrite. oxygen, carbonates etc. in a continuous manner. Or in plainer English, they live where flow/circulation is best. Usually this would be in filter media, but this is not always so. Clogged media doesn't support bacteria well because of the flow issues.
 
So when we put a brand new filter onto a tank what exactly what are we doing relative to the bacteria? We are creating an ideal home for the bacteria, one even better than the one they have in an established filter as the new media has better flow. Now all it takes are a few free floating bacteria or a bit of detached biofilm to land in the new media, and nature will take its course.
 
The effect over the next few weeks are that the new home will encourage any bacteria there to multiply because it provides for their needs really well. On the other hand, the bacteria in the established filter will gradually decline in number because, as noted above, there is only so much ammonia in a tank. In the end you will not create more bacteria, to any extant, the colonies will just be living in different places.
 
In the end, it is a lot easier just to move some amount of media or gravel etc. from the established tank into the new tank as a jump start. This gives you some time to dose the new tank with ammonia and get it more or even fully cycled in good time and before the new fish go in.