Fishless Cycling & Media

[kudos1uk]

I have started off my cycle following the instructions for a new tank but I dont have any media.

I just remembered I know somebody with a biorb, if I ask them for their old dirty foam filter which is change once a month in a biorb will it do the trick just to drop it in my tank?

 

[OldMan47]

If you get to simply clean their filter in your tank and give it back to them you will both benefit from it. Your friend will get to continue using their biofilter and you will get a jump start on your own filter. I always start a new tank by using it as a cleaning bucket for a mature filter. What I get is easy to say. My new filter gets a nice sample of exactly the right bacteria and my old filter, cleaned in that new tank, goes right back into the old tank to continue its job as a primary biofilter. Once I have that bacterial sample in my new tank I simply follow the "fishless cycle" and I am almost always done in about a week.