Moving Water Between Tanks

[awilson360]

I have two tanks. A fully cycled tank with 2 Fancy Goldfish and a Fish-In Cycle Community Tropical Tank which I have been doing two 50% water changes a day and my Ammonia is yet to exceed 0.25 ppm

They are both next to each other, the tropical tank slightly lower than the goldfish tank.

My question is when I take water from the tank that is yet to cycle could I directly syphon water from my cycled goldfish tank. The two goldfish are healthy but I've read that goldfish are dirty and carry all kinds of parasites? Don't know if this is true. I'd like to do this because the goldfish tank water has nitrates in it which will help the plants in the tropical tank and may help speed up the cycle ever so slightly.

I could then replenish the water in the goldfish tank with fresh de-chlorinated tap water.

Thanks,
AW

 

[markandhisfish]

i wouldnt do it myself. aside from the risk of any cross contamination , by re-filling the community tank with old water from the messy goldfish tank , which will be higher in nitrates and other dissolved solids you are pretty much defeating the object of the waterchanges in the community tank ( aside from the control of the ammonia levels due to the fish-in cyclle) far better to re-fill the tanks with clean fresh water

the nitrates in the goldfish water will do nothing to speed up your cycle as nitrates are not processed by the filter .

 

[awilson360]

i wouldnt do it myself. aside from the risk of any cross contamination , by re-filling the community tank with old water from the messy goldfish tank , which will be higher in nitrates and other dissolved solids you are pretty much defeating the object of the waterchanges in the community tank ( aside from the control of the ammonia levels due to the fish-in cyclle) far better to re-fill the tanks with clean fresh water

the nitrates in the goldfish water will do nothing to speed up your cycle as nitrates are not processed by the filter .

Ah ok then I guess I will just have to continue using clean fresh water. Just wanted to give my plants a good chance of surviving with no nitrates for a couple of weeks. I thought the goldfish tank water might help transfer trace amounts of good bacteria from the established tank to the new tank. Even though the bacteria lives in the filter and on the surfaces surely there are really small amounts in the water...

AW

 

[markandhisfish]

the bacteria in the water is negligable and really wont make any difference. the best way to speed up your cycle is to take some mature media from the filters on the goldfish tank and put it into the filters on the community tank.