Heater And Filter in cylcing?

[lilhurleybunny]

I starte dthe post but t was deleated when the site got shut down so i decided to get it started again since i never really got to check the posts .

Anyway, my original questions was..do the heater and filter have to be in the tank during cylcing? If so what do i do with my fish? I want to do a fishless cycle and im trying to steer clear of having to buy ANOTHER heater and filter.

THANKS!!

I'm going to petsmart tommarow to play and buy some goodies YAY!!

 

[Corp000085]

yeah you need the filter. First of all, you need the water the move around constantly. Second, the bulk of the bacteria in the tank gets trapped in the filter media. So yeah, keep your filter on all the time. Only turn it off when you're working on it or doing water changes. As for the heater, i don't really know what temperature variations do to the cycling process, but i assume that temperature gradients are bad for the bacteria.

 

[Cian McLiam]

The tank wont truly cycle (although some would argue that a natural ecosystem is possible) unless a filter is pulling moving, oxygenated water over the filter media so bacteria can thrive. So in short, you need a filter in there to get the cycle started.
A heater can raise the temp to speed up the build up of benificial bacteria socrank it up to around 26-27C and poke the filter outlet out of the water to break the surface and release/absorb the necessary.

Ken

 

[lilhurleybunny]

Well the reason i asked was because i am getting a new 10 gallon soon and will be getting rid of my 5 gallon.

So is it possible that i could fill the new 10 gallon up with water..and move my heater and filter directly in to the new tank without cycling at all? I mean would the heater and filter have enough bacteria on them to be able to establish new colonies in the new tank? I will be getting new substrate and live plants so i think i will be okay in that area.

Will this plan work?

 

[Corp000085]

It will work well, except you might get a bloom because the gravel and decorations would be new and uncolonized. What i'd do would be to get another filter, run it along with the old one in the 5 gallon (you'll have to be creative and make room. Run the filter for about a week to establish bacteria. Then pull the new filter from the old tank, run it in the new tank, along with some transplanted gravel (dumping it in works, but put it in a stocking. that works best). Let it run for a few days and you should be good to go with the fish transfer.

 

[lilhurleybunny]

Alright, I'll try and work something out. THANKS!! For your help!!!