Mature Media And Sponge Filter

[Moby-Krib]

Hi all,
I've been reading these forums for quite some time and have never posted, the info here has been quite useful to me, Many thanks.

I have a question now that I thought I'd ask rather than my usual try it and see method.
I need to get a fry tank up and going in a semi hurry as I have a few females holding at the moment and the best available to me filters are some Hydro sponge filters I still have in the box.

My question, If I wanted to try to use some mature media from other tanks to speed them along how would I go about doing this?
I envision rubber banding the mature sponges around the circumference of the new filter. would this be good enough to get the bacteria to begin the transfer?
I can easily cull enough material from 1 or 2 tanks to totally cover the new filter if I can just figure a good way to hold it in place.

Thanks for any help and insight.

 

[ZoddyZod]

I would give the mature sponges a good squeeze in the fry tank (before adding any fry) and let the Hydros filter the water until clear, picking up all the lovely bacteria as it goes.

I did a vvery similar thing on my brother-in-laws tank and it was cycled instantly.


....oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

[Moby-Krib]

I would give the mature sponges a good squeeze in the fry tank (before adding any fry) and let the Hydros filter the water until clear, picking up all the lovely bacteria as it goes.

I did a vvery similar thing on my brother-in-laws tank and it was cycled instantly.


....oh, and welcome to the forum!

Thank you for the warm welcome, for as long as I have been lurking in the shadows I really should have posted a long time ago. Most my questions have been answered with a bit of poking around though.

So you feel just squeezing the sponges will do it?
Maintenance day is tomorrow, I could just use the soon to be fry tank as a wash basin for a pair of canisters off my main tank.

Come to think of it the fry wont be putting off near the waste of full grown fish, and with the extra water changes they will / may require it really should be just fine I would think.

Thank you!! you just kick started a direction I should have seen but over looked.

 

[ZoddyZod]

if the other filters have been running for a long time and the filters have not been cleaned recently, there should be sufficient 'gunk' that's harbouring bacteria on them. A good squeeze in the fry tank should be all that's needed.

 

[Moby-Krib]

if the other filters have been running for a long time and the filters have not been cleaned recently, there should be sufficient 'gunk' that's harbouring bacteria on them. A good squeeze in the fry tank should be all that's needed.

The tank has been up for 9 months and the filters were last given maintenance about 2-3 months ago so I think this is the way I will go.
I plan on running a low dose of ammonia, maybe 1-2ppm to make sure its cycled. I have just under 2 weeks b4 the first female should be ready to spit her fry.

Thank you for the advice. I was over complicating things a tad .

 

[ZoddyZod]

dosing the ammonia and checking fully is a very good idea.

 

[Moby-Krib]

Worked out well.
Took a full 24 hr to clear 1ppm but I'm going to call that good for a nursery / fry tank.
Will be monitoring but rather think I'll never see that kind of waste out of em right off anyway,

Now to vac the yucky stuff off my sand b4 I move mom over there