Kickstart Biofilter ?

[anon02]

Hi all,
I`ll shortly be getting my 1st tank, and I was wondering if leaving the biological filter sponge in my grandsons` mature tank till I get set up would be beneficial / timesaving or if I should just let nature take its` course with a fishless cycle ?
I understand that I will still have to carry out the ammonia add and test part till I get double zeros for a week before stocking

 

[ian]

yes it will work, however the sponges will have to be somewhere fast flowing, ie in the filter itself. I have read that seeding can take as little as 2 weeks, however 4 seems to be the norm. So if your then gonna does ammonia for another week, you might save yourself a week.

 

[OldMan47]

You can indeed get yourself a start in that fashion but unless you actually run your filter on that tank it won't be worth much to your cycle.

 

[anon02]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I got my tank yesterday 2nd hand (off my grandson), he`d cleaned the tank and rinsed the gravel, so I thought the media would be barren after 3 days out of cycle. I was able to begin the fishless cycle yesterday evening and to my surprise after 24 hours a test showed 0.25 mg/l. Could this be an anomaly ?

I`ve added enough ammonia to raise the content to 5.0 mg/l again and I`ll test again tomorrow evening. If I get another low reading will it be worth doing a nitrite test or am I being too optimistic ?

Tia

 

[OldMan47]

That is entirely possible. As long as the gravel and filter were only rinsed and not thoroughly washed, you may well have a good start on your cycle from prior use.

 

[anon02]

Fingers crossed

 

[anon02]

Fingers crossed

Bit of a disappointment when I tested this evening, ammonia @ 3.0 ppm so I`ve decided to leave things and re test in 24 hours