Help Changing Filter?

[GAB99]

i might be going to a garage sale tomorrow and if i find a tank which ill most likely get i was wondrin where ill get a filterand it just came upon me like that.

how do you change the filter cartridge? cuz all the little bacteria live in the other old one, so how do you change it without causing a mini cycle?

also if i did find a tank at the garage sale and it came with a filter can i use the old filter cartridge to cycle the tank instantly and if that does cycle instantly (how long is instantly?) should i put some fish from the current tank to provide "food" for the bacteria?

sry for all the q's

 

[indigoj]

I suggest you go and read about cycling in the beginers bit - particularly fish-less cycling! You could however run a new filter alongside your existing one for 4 weeks to seed it (then lightly stock the new tank) I wouldn't use old filter media from someone you don't know - I'd only use from a trusted source.

 

[ellena]

If you're finishing your current tank and swapping for the new one, you could buy a new filter/use the one that came with the tank and put the sponge etc from your current one into it. That would support swapping over the fish you currently have. Or as indigo said, run them both together for a while.
If the boot sale tank comes with a filter, it's unlikely to have live bacteria on it unless the tank was only emptied that morning.

 

[GAB99]

what? i know how to do that, i was just asking how to change the filter cartridge without starting a mini cycle cuz there are no bacteria in the new cartridge

 

[MHunt]

What kind of filter are you swapping from and to? Generally you want to get as much of the old filter media in there as possible so just shove the sponges in the new filter where you think they'll go. Just be aware of the water's flow otherwise you may end up with the water going round the old sponges and not helping with the tank cycle.