How Long Will It Take?

[PRW1988]

alright, so I just got a canaster filter a couple days ago, and I'm kind of curious to know how long will it take for the filter to be full of bacteria so I can end up transfering it to my (soon to be) brackish water tank?

 

[DeepSeaFishin]

I never personally used a canister filter, becuase my tanks are under 50-70gallons. However I would have to say you would use the same rule of thumb as cycling your tank, so let it run 3-5 weeks, then take it out and move it. Correct me if I'm wrong all those canister users out there.

 

[rdd1952]

If you run it in an existing tank along with the filter that is already in there, some of the bacteria will transfer over. Is there no way you can just add some filter media from the existing filter to the new one and do a fishless cycle on the other tank? I think you could do a fishless cycle with a seeded filter a lot quicker than letting the filter run in the existing tank for 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[PRW1988]

this is my first canaster filter, so I'm not able to transfer some matured filter media to it... So regardless it'll take basically the same amount of time doing transfering it to another, matured, tank and cycling the tank by itself... Darn...

 

[rdd1952]

Even though you don't have another canister filter, you can still transfer media from a HOB or UGF. What type filter do you currently have? If it's a HOB, are you running carbon or some other media in the pack? If it's a UGF, put some gravel from the existing tank into the canister baskets.