Fishless cycle with old tank water?

[endilliteracy]

Well, my birthday is coming up soon and the number one thing on my wishlist is...Yep! You guess it! A bigger tank! I'm thinking anywhere from a 75 gallon to a 100 gallon. I was looking at my LPS for pure ammonia to do a fishless cycle, but there was none. I also have a 30 gallon and 10 gallon (the 10 gallon is cycling) Would it work if I just threw in the old tank water in the new tank when I did weekly water changes? I am not sure if this would work or not.

And you know you are obsessed with fish when your boyfriend offers you diamonds for your birthday and you'd rather go for a bigger aquarium.

 

[Nuttygal! :0)]

And you know you are obsessed with fish when your boyfriend offers you diamonds for your birthday and you'd rather go for a bigger aquarium.

LOL! I agree

And you will probably have to go to an actual aquatic store to buy pure ammonia! (But I don't know! )
And also, do you mean put the old water from your new tank into your 10gal that is cycling, or use the 10gal's cycling water to put in your new tank? I'm cunfused...

 

[endilliteracy]

And you know you are obsessed with fish when your boyfriend offers you diamonds for your birthday and you'd rather go for a bigger aquarium.

LOL! I agree

And you will probably have to go to an actual aquatic store to buy pure ammonia! (But I don't know! )
And also, do you mean put the old water from your new tank into your 10gal that is cycling, or use the 10gal's cycling water to put in your new tank? I'm cunfused...

Put the water from my 30 gal and 10 gal into the larger 75-100 gal because wouldn't the old water have fish waste in it?

 

[endilliteracy]

Oh and I live in a very small town, we don't have any aquatic stores here. Just pet stores that have a small section for fish.

 

[Nuttygal! :0)]

Yeah sorry I just read the title of the topic.... ) I am so dumb!
Anyway I think it would be a good idea to do that - I think it would have the same effect as squeezing filter media into the tanks wouldn't it?

 

[endilliteracy]

Yeah sorry I just read the title of the topic.... ) I am so dumb!
Anyway I think it would be a good idea to do that - I think it would have the same effect as squeezing filter media into the tanks wouldn't it?

I'm not sure. Maybe I will try it out as an experiment.

 

[yvez9]

using old tank water won't do much for cycling.

the best thing you can do is

let the new tank run for a couple of days to make sure everything is ok

take a piece of filter media from your 29 gallon and put it in the new tank's filter. then already add a few fish, about a quarter of what you have in your 29 gallon (if you have 20 fish, add 5 or 6 new fish of roughly the same size or equivalent to the new tank (if you put much larger fish, just put 2 or3 )) and feed them normally. Ammonia and nitrite should stay nill and nitrate will go up bacuse you will seed your filter with bacteria that will quickly multiply.

Wait 2 weeks and add a few more fish
wait another 2 weeks and add more

do this until you are fully stocked and keep up the watre changes!

enjoy your tank

 

[endilliteracy]

using old tank water won't do much for cycling.

the best thing you can do is

let the new tank run for a couple of days to make sure everything is ok

take a piece of filter media from your 29 gallon and put it in the new tank's filter. then already add a few fish, about a quarter of what you have in your 29 gallon (if you have 20 fish, add 5 or 6 new fish of roughly the same size or equivalent to the new tank (if you put much larger fish, just put 2 or3 )) and feed them normally. Ammonia and nitrite should stay nill and nitrate will go up bacuse you will seed your filter with bacteria that will quickly multiply.

Wait 2 weeks and add a few more fish
wait another 2 weeks and add more

do this until you are fully stocked and keep up the watre changes!

enjoy your tank

Thanks. I wonder who to add first. Should I add my most hardy fish? You can see what kind of fish I have in my sig. Maybe I would add the molly?

Or maybe I will keep the fish I have in my 29 gallon and make the 100 gallon a cichlid tank?

 

[endilliteracy]

I will probably just put the fish that are in my 29 gallon in the 100 gallon and then just add some more tetras and blue rams.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi endilliteracy

Why do you want to do a fishless cycle when you have everything you need already?

If you are going to move your fish to the larger tank and take down your smaller ones, simply give it a good vacuuming and move the gravel, filter, plants, decorations, etc. over to your new tank without washing them or letting them dry. You will have an instantly cycled tank, able to support all the fish that were in the smaller tank. Give it a week or so to settle in and you can begin adding more.
If you do this, don't use more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the old tank water and use freshly dechlorinated water to fill it.

After this tank is established, you could take some gravel and filter media (or run another filter on it) to cultivate bacteria to set up the smaller tank(s) again.

My biggest tank is a 55 gallon, and I often set up smaller tanks this way. Think of it as simply relocating the bacteria you already have. Just go slow adding more fish so that the bacteria has time to catch up to them.

The more tanks you have the easier it gets.

 

[endilliteracy]

Thanks everyone for helping me out. The filter I have on my 29 gallon now is for a 20-40 gallon. Could I run that filter on my 100 gallon with another larger filter?

 

[Inchworm]

Thanks everyone for helping me out. The filter I have on my 29 gallon now is for a 20-40 gallon. Could I run that filter on my 100 gallon with another larger filter?

Hi endilliteracy

Sure you could! It would work out fine and after 3 weeks or so the other filter would have developed its own batch of bacteria and you could remove the smaller one if you liked.

If you could divide the media, putting some from the small filter into the big one, it would work even better since you would be giving it a head start. Another thing you could do is start the big filter now by running it in the smaller tank either with the small filter, or by taking out the media from the smaller filter and putting it all into the big one, with additional media to fill it.

It all depends on the kind of filter you are using. I use AquaClear filters in my bigger tanks and they are easy to work with since I also add filter floss to provide a home for additional bacteria. Some of the filters that require cartridges are harder to work with in this regard.