How Quick Can Fish Be Added...

[-FighterFishh]

...once you put mature media into a filter?
As in, if I added mature media to a filter tomorrow, would I be able to add a fish the same day?
Thank you!

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes...with caveats...

Don't add more fish than the media can support, and stay on the consevative side (so, if your mature filter is supporting 30 neons, and you took a third, you would want to add six or eight to the new tank, not the full ten).

Feed very sparingly and test frequently in both tanks for a week or so, in case of mini cycles.

I prefer to qualify mine; I set the tank up, and plant it and add some fish food (because I clone all my filters and don't have ammonia, but ammonia would do too, if you have some left from a fishless cycle). Once I can read some ammonia (it'll only be 0.5 or 1ppm with fish food) I add the mature media last thing at night and test first thing next morning. If the ammonia has gone, I know I'm safe to add fish.

 

[-FighterFishh]

I'd probably take the media from my 64L, then add it to a 20L ish tank and put in 1 male betta, so I think that should be okay.

Thank you for the tip! I'll be sure to do so when I (hopefully) get the new tank

 

[-FighterFishh]

Got the new tank yesterday, scaped it and put in some flake food to create ammonia.
The ammonia spiked to about 1ppm and so I added in the mature media. I then took out as much food as I could and left it until the morning.
Checked the levels earlier and they're the same!
I'm wondering if this is because I left quite a lot of food in there (the spray bar shot it behind the bog wood)?

Anyway, I've vacuumed the sand to get out the rest of the food and done a small w/c, and the ammonia now stands at 0.5ppm. I'll check the levels later to see if they've gone down, and if they have, would you say it's safe to add fish?

 

[minnnt]

Do another water change of around 50% to take it down to somewhere near 0.25ppm and then see if it rises any. If not then i would be tempted to ad the fish.

I would have added the mature media and added the Betta then feed the following day a very small amount then done a water change. Thats what i usually do anyway.

 

[-FighterFishh]

Do another water change of around 50% to take it down to somewhere near 0.25ppm and then see if it rises any. If not then i would be tempted to ad the fish.

I would have added the mature media and added the Betta then feed the following day a very small amount then done a water change. Thats what i usually do anyway.

Thank you for the advice! Will do the w/c later, maybe after I've tested again, just to see if it's gone down?
Chai's still pretty happy in his current tank anyway, so I'm in no real hurry to get him over. I can also add more plants in there while he's still in the biOrb, too!

 

[minnnt]

Sounds good Can't wait to see him in his new home