Just To Clarify..

[willowstwin]

Hi all.

I'm just wating clarification on something, but let me explain the full story...

The tank at work (I've mentioned it before) has nearly lost all its fish (they're over 4 yrs old and only have an average life expectancy of 3 - 4 years), the water levels are fine and the fish don't look to be diseased, so I'm assuming it's old age. We've decided to shut down the tank once all the fish have gone. However.. if I get a new tank (for example, I'm after a nano betta shrimp tank for my desk at work), if I removed the filter media from the new filter, and replaced it with the filter media from the old tanks filter, would I still need to cycle? I only want to put a betta in there and some cherries (a 20litre tank) so surely the filter meda will be able to manage such a miniscule bioload?

I know if I moved my own tanks (40ltr) filter media into a bigger tank (hopefully getting a 200litre from another member here) then I would need to get tthe cycle going for the bigger volume. But I just wondered if that was necessary for a smaller tank.

Willow

 

[the_lock_man]

It depends on how long between the last fish dying and you getting the new tank. If there's an overlap (ie you get your 20l whilst there is still fish in the office tank), you can take a third of the existing media without worry.

If, on the other hand, there is 3 weeks gap between the last fish dying, and you getting the 20l, all the bacteria will have died through lack of ammonia, so I guess you'd have to cycle from scratch.

 

[Miles_hot]

If there is a lack of overlap can I suggest that you add 4ppm ammonia to the old tank each day to keep the bacteria alive - if you then don't need them it will make the filter a little more valuable or you can get great karma by giving away the mature media