Have You Ever Cloned One Of Your Tanks?

[IceH2O]

I'm not going to say this goes for everyone, of course with anything there are many variables.

I 'tried' cloning my tanks.

I had a 20 gallon and started up a 55 gallon. I put the filter media in the 55 gallon and half the fish load. For the 1st 3 days everything was fine. The next day I had small amounts of ammonia ( .25 )and nitrites (.25 ). After doing daily waterchanges my ammonia has fallen to 0 and have stayed there. The nitrites are still fluctuating between .25 and 0 but aren't 0 yet. I'm doing daily waterchanges and hopefully soon it will stay at 0.

My 75 gallon I moved the entire filter from the 20 gallon, after a week of running on the 20 gallon. The ammonia has stayed at 0 but the nitrites climbed to .25. Dealing with it same as the 55 gallon.

So 'instant or clone' I have a problem saying.

Shortcutting the cycle is more like it.

 

[Durbkat]

Well I never monitored my water stats when cloned my 55g. Since I didn't have enough plants for the 55g I took all the plants from the long 20g and put them in the 55g then I took about 10 pounds of gravel from the 20g and put it in the 55g I also put the filter from the 20g in the 55g and before I did all this when I first got the tank I placed all the filter media in the 20g so it could collect bacteria and thats why I think it went to well.

I can't believe how old this thread is, it has to be at least 2 months old.

 

[Gourami Lover88]

Every tank I have is cloned from some other tank, come to think of it, I have never cycled a tank, and I have never lost a fish to amonia

 

[love cichlids]

I only had to cycle one tank. Did not know about fishless cycle. Had 2 goldfish, but made sure I changed 30% of water EVERY day and they were fine. A little extra work but no losses, thank god. Since then I have cloned all my tanks. Cycled my angelfish tank, just because I had the time to do it because had to save up money for stuff I needed for the tank or I would have cloned it.

 

[smmetz]

I started this fall with a 10 gallon tank. When I upgraded to a 29 gallon, I put in the gravel from my 10 gallon, and the bio part of my filter media into my new filter. I did not test for nitrites, but have a thing that hangs in the tank and indicates if amonia is present. Never saw it change color, and the fish did fine. A couple months later, I set up my 10 gallon again, took the filter media back, and some gravel, threw in my 4 zebra danios, and things went well.

I am probably going to get a 55 gallon this month sometime, and plan to use the same methods. The kit I am looking at comes with an aquaclear70 filter, same as I have on my 29 gallon. I will just put some of the filter media in the new tank, and I expect things to go well.

 

[Durbkat]

I would get a stronger filter for the 55g and would move the danios into it because they are to active for a 10g. Let me guess your getting the 55g kit from wal mart right?

 

[IceH2O]

I thought about it and realized something. Most of you are on city water so you use Prime to dechlorinate. Prime will help detoxify nitrites, so even if they are present they won't affect the fish as much. I'm on well water so I use no conditioner. I decided I'd try Prime to help with the detoxication, I also added some Stress Zyme, which from what I understand is worthess, can't hurt.

I usually try not to use chems of any type. But everyone uses Prime or equilavent so I can look at it as not using chems to hide the problem. The Stress Zyme is 'supposed' to aid the biological action of the filter, says has live bacteria. From what I understand only BioSpira has been proven to work but my LFS doesn't sell it. Anyone use Stress Zyme that will vouch for the helping of cycling?

 

[Durbkat]

I used it while fish cycling my long 20g but it didn't do anything.

 

[Bloo]

Actually, if you add 100% tap water in a new tank you will kill off some if not most of the beneficial bacteria.

From my experience - really not true at all (If you're talking about a mature established tank / filter 6 months or older).

I've done this three times - in three different tanks. Not only a 100% water change, but also full gravel/sand change or gravel wash.

Once when moving house
Twice when changing substrates.

I have never experienced any cycle, spike, fish loss or illness as a result.
Which would most certainly indicate that the vast majority (if not all) the beneficial bacteria resides in the filter - and not the water / substrate.

When doing new tanks, I used existing filter material to clone. All goes perfectly and I can highly recommend this method.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I have never done it any other way. Why would you, especially if upgrading to a bigger tank? More water, same amount of fish and bacteria...

I take filter media from my old filters and put it in the new, don't add too many fish and away we go. Never had any problems.

Oh, and fishing4exotics >

No beneficial bacteria exist in the water. In fact if anything it would be bad bacteria. As long as the water has been dechlorinated then there is no problem.

 

[andywg]

The only reason I would retain old water would be incase of any large differences in water paramaeters (pH, GH, KH etc.).

I have cloned 8 tanks from my original (including cloning it out, breaking it down and later cloning back from its clone) and never had any trouble at all.

But does this mean that my tanks are now horrendously inbred?

 

[smmetz]

I would get a stronger filter for the 55g and would move the danios into it because they are to active for a 10g. Let me guess your getting the 55g kit from wal mart right?

I'm getting the kit from a lfs, I have also seen it at Petco. I would not be surprised if Walmart carried it also.
This is the kit, but it comes with a Aquaclear70 instead of the Whisper60
http/www.all-glass.com/products/featured/kits/

I think I'll put the danios in the 55 with my platties to make sure the tank is cycled before I add other fish. I'll probably get a few more danios then also, since I read they like to be in groupls of 5-6 or more. (and I have 4) The danios will probably go into my 29 eventually, we'll see. They won't go back in to my 10 though.

The Aquaclear70 is not enough for a 55 gallon? I know I would get a size up if I were buying components seperately, but I thought an AC70 would be fine for a 55 that is not overstocked. If I start to have more than 50-60" of fish in there, I'll definitly upgrade it or put in a second filter.

 

[Durbkat]

Does it say on the box how many gallons it filters because I would think if your using a aquaclear 70 on a 29g then you would need a stronger one?

 

[smmetz]

Oh, yeah, I am way over filtering on my 29 gallon. The Aquaclear 70 is recommeneded for 40-70 gallon tanks, and pumps 300 gph of water. That should move the tank water through the filter 5.5 times per hour on a 55 gallon tank.

 

[Durbkat]

Well then the aqua clear 70 should be fine, my bad. )