Help With Cloning

[furryrabbit]

ok so , i have an established rekord 60 and a new rekord 80. to help cycle my new tank could i switch the filter floss of the old tank < not the sponges > with that of the new tank , to help promote bacteria? i dont see why not cus in the established tank wouldnt the new floss be quickly repopulated by the other sponges?

thanks

 

[furryrabbit]

<bump>

 

[Paul_MTS]

Just move one of the sponges over instead, cut your feeding down slightly in the established tank and it will be fine.

There won't be a great deal of beneficial bacteria in the filter floss.

 

[furryrabbit]

ok , which sponge < green , blue ? ( i presume not the charcoal) > are you sure it wont cause a minicycle im my established tank , id hate to damage my fish

 

[docbanzai]

Hi,

the Rekord 60 has a better filter than the 'side on' R80 IMHO. Use the 'course' blue filter (from the old tank) as a seed in the new tank. Removal of this 'old' filter won't cause a problem as long as your established tank is not over stocked. Reduced feeding (by 50%-75%) in the 'old' tank for 48 hours and you won't have any problems (in fact you could quite comfortably not feed at all for 48 hours to reduce waste. It won't hurt your fish.)

Make sure that you have a sufficient bio-load in the new tank to support the 'old' filter or else you'll have problems. Cloning a tank works very well as long as you can 'feed' the new filter. My suggestion is to run the new tank empty for 7-10 days (no filters except the white and black, and don't forget the heater!). Then put your 'old' (blue) filter in. Wait 8-12 hours and then add a 90% load i.e. for a 70l (18.5 U.S. Gallon) = 9" of fish. Perhaps 6-7 Neons or 5-6 Zebra Danios.

Remember to add additional O2 to a new tank as 'new' water can often be lacking in free oxygen, and check temperature. It's not required to have the water overly warm. 22-24 deg C is fine for pretty much all tropicals. Check pH and introduce new fish slowly. Take your time, after all; you wouldn't like to be taken out of a tropical environment and be dumped into freezing/boiling acid/alkaline world!

I'm sure you'll be fine. Trops are tougher than we think!

Good Luck,

DB

 

[furryrabbit]

thanks everyone for your advice

 

[andywg]

Hi,

My suggestion is to run the new tank empty for 7-10 days (no filters except the white and black, and don't forget the heater!). Then put your 'old' (blue) filter in. Wait 8-12 hours and then add a 90% load i.e. for a 70l (18.5 U.S. Gallon) = 9" of fish. Perhaps 6-7 Neons or 5-6 Zebra Danios.

Why have it running for so long? What will having the filter running on an empty tank for 7-10 days do, except waste electricity? I would just have the heater on long enough to get the water up to temp and then start moving fish.

Remember to add additional O2 to a new tank as 'new' water can often be lacking in free oxygen, and check temperature. It's not required to have the water overly warm. 22-24 deg C is fine for pretty much all tropicals. Check pH and introduce new fish slowly. Take your time, after all; you wouldn't like to be taken out of a tropical environment and be dumped into freezing/boiling acid/alkaline world!

Most people will fill a tank first time from colder water, this has MORE dissolved oxygen in it than warmer water. As water heats up it holds less dissolved oxygen, this is why if you fill a tank from the cold tap and leave it empty save for filters you will see a number of bubbles appear on the sides as the gas is driven from the water. Water does not gain an ability to hold more oxygen by sitting in a glass box.

So long as the temp and pH of the water is the same, dump the fish and the filter media in and away you go.

 

[docbanzai]

I stand corrected. These are just my personal habits, not guaranteed to work for all!

P.S. I'm from Southend originally

 

[furryrabbit]

ok , well i seeded with the mature filter , and added my two columbian tetras. its a 20gal so , will just 4" of fish be sufficient to cycle it? i could add my pleco. also , seeing as i have seeded with the blue filter sponge , the water is dechlored , and i added some of my matured water from a water change , everything is up and running , is my tank cycled?

 

[Mako Man111]

ok , well i seeded with the mature filter , and added my two columbian tetras. its a 20gal so , will just 4" of fish be sufficient to cycle it? i could add my pleco. also , seeing as i have seeded with the blue filter sponge , the water is dechlored , and i added some of my matured water from a water change , everything is up and running , is my tank cycled?

Have you tested the ammonia and nitrites?

 

[furryrabbit]

nitrite is @ 0
ammonia is @ 1ppm