Filter Question

[chibi]

Harhar, I humor myself with my lame titles...

Mmkay, I have a friend who has a 10 gallon tank. It was disgusting! There was algae caked on the sides, horrible calcium deposits, and God knows what in the filter, heater and gravel. Well, I went outside and scrubbed and cleaned it for an hour. Now it's sparkly clean! However, she gave me this task. She's off to Florida for a week and is coming back Saturday. I need to get it all ready to put fish in.

This is what I did. I filled it up with water from my 29-gallon, which has been up for almost 2 years. I also switched the filters so my tank's filter filtered the 10 gallon and hers filtered my 29-gallon. I thought this could not only super-filter the 10-gallon, but get some more good bacteria into her filter. I changed it back today.

Anyway, do you think this would work? Will it be okay for fish to live in? Have any suggestions as to what else I can do to make sure it's ready?

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EDIT: Okay, here's my filter question. How can I take the filter out and safely get it to my friend's house without killing the bacteria? Should I put the filter media in a zipblock bag full of water? Will that be okay? I have to drive 10 minutes to her house, so it's not that far away. I was planning to take most of the water out and put it in large, 3-gallon zipblock bags, then fill it up all the way with her tap water (treated of course). Does this sound okay?

 

[Christine1014]

Not really. The cycling process takes place in the filter, not in the water. Putting an established filter on a new tank does make it inhabitable for fish right away, but you have to leave that filter there.

What kind of filters do you each have? If you've got some kind of media that you can divide or cut in half, and swap half of hers with half of yours, that would work. She could then stock with a couple fish at a time without any problems. And as long as you were diligent with gravel vacs and water changes on your tank, it shouldn't send your filter into a mini-cycle.

 

[chibi]

We've got totally different filters, but maybe I can work something out. Do you think I should put her filter media in mine for a while, or put some of mine into hers? I don't think the latter would work, but the first might.

 

[Christine1014]

If you can run her filter on your tank, that would be perfect.
Just be careful when you're taking it BACK to her house in a week or so not to tell it dry out, or you'll kill off the good bacteria.

 

[Lynda B]

What do you have in the tank that you removed the existing filter from?

 

[chibi]

What do you have in the tank that you removed the existing filter from?

My 29-gallon? I have a huge amount of live plants, corys, tetras, guppies, and balloon mollies. Her 10-gallon is empty except for her old gravel (and my water).

 

[rdd1952]

You should be testing the water in your 29 gallon tank for ammonia as your tank is now uncycled. As mentioned, the filter is what is cycled, not the tank. So when you put her filter in your tank, you basically started your tank over again meaning that you have no bacteria in it. What's really bad is that by running your filter in her tank without an ammonia source, you have probably lost all the bacteria on your filter too so now you most likely don't have any bacteria left at all meaning you will not only have to cycle her tank but also your own. It really just depends on how long your filter was in her tank without a food source for the bacteria. Since your tank is heavily planted, you are probably fine as the plants will help process most of the ammonia from the fish.

 

[Lynda B]

Thank you, rdd, that's pretty much what I was getting at. I thought that would be the case (I'm new at this, too) but wasn't certain.

 

[scorphonic]

Rdd has it spot on!!

I'm very surprised that you have not known the function of a filter even after 2 years in the hobby!! I dont mean to be rude if it comes across like that...I'm just surprised!!

 

[MHunt]

Ouch , be prepared for a cycle in your 29 gal! As has been said in this thread and in my sig, you're cycling the filter not the tank.

Good luck, you're going to need it!

What should be done to clone a filter, is either run both in the same tank for a week or so, or you could perhaps squeeze the media from the 10 gal tank into your 29 gal filter and populate the filter media that way.

 

[rdd1952]

To clone a filter, you can also just talke half of the media from the cycled filter and add it to the new filter. The remaining bacteria in the cycled filter will double back to full size in about 24 hours so you shouldn't even see much of a mini cycle.

 

[-germ-]

SeaChem Prime!!! Get some...

 

[toppman]

not really helpful but....

this title sounds like an advert for a new low budget film

one tank, one week, one cycle, can it be done, watch as we follow one boys quest 2 acheive the unachievable........

 

[chibi]

OH GOD. I'VE MADE SUCH A BIG MISTAKE.

Crap crap crap crap CRAP!!

Thank you guys sooooo much! What do you suggest I do now?

 

[rdd1952]

You said you had moved the filter back already. Hopefully, not a lot of the bacteria died off. Just keep a close watch on the ammonia and nitrite in your tank for a few days to make sure you don't get a spike.