How Long?

[Yanks15]

I'm gonna add an additional filter to my cycled goldfish tank. It's only a Top Fin 10. I want to insert the sponge of a Aqua Clear 70 to use to seed my next tank. Is there any draw back to my existing filter? How long will it take until there is enough bacteria on the new sponge? I won't be setting up the new tank for a few weeks still.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

ps. The tank is 16gal w/ 1 fancy GF w/ Aqueon 20 filter.

 

[Colin_T]

it will take about a month for the new filter to become established.

you will lose some of the bacteria from your old filter when the new one is developed. This is due to the rank and filters only holding a certain amount of beneficial bacteria. The bacteria will be spread out between the filters. When you remove one of the filters it will half (approximately) the good filter bacteria in the tank. However, the bacteria grow rapidly and will be back up to a full colony within a few days of the filter being moved to the new tank.

 

[Yanks15]

Thanks Colin. I figured it would take a while so I wanted to get it going now.