My Tank Cycle Trick

[loveforfhishies]

aright i was sitting around trying to figure a way to cycle my tank in half the time, i came up with this simple idea that i would imagine would work.

seeing how its really the filter that has to cycle i was toying with the idea of puttyin my filter for my 50 gallon tank on my 10 gallon tank to cut the cycle time in half cuz of the water volume.

would this work or do i need to cycle it in the tank i intend on using?

 

[Fishkrazy1]

Interesting thought... However I'd recommend using both filters at once instead of just the one on your 50gallon... also their is a problem because you still need to have the bacteria colonized within your tank... you do have a chacne of making this work but use both filter so the one for your ten also gets some bacteria into it HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

[QuotheRaven]

thats commonly known as seeding the tank however another way is to place some of the cycled filter media (not to much) into the ten gallon filter as it contains the good bacteria....

 

[loveforfhishies]

i dont have a filter for my 10 gallon, only a penguin 350 for my 55 gallon,

right now my filter has mature media in it from the fish store,

its actually quite a bit of mature media???

anyway i was thinking if i took the decoration and gravel out of my 50 gallon, put it all in my ten gallon with my big 55 gallon filter if it would cycle that water so much quicker and give me a nice mature filter to put on my 55 gallon tank?

its kinda hard to explain the way im thinking of it but it looks good in my mind.. allthough i am still a begginer.

 

[QuotheRaven]

well do you have fish in the 55 gallon tank? if not and your providing a source of ammonia the bacteria in your filter will be dying off I think...

 

[loveforfhishies]

no i have no fish in either tank

all i have is a filter and some mature media.

i just wana cycle the filter faster and thought this could be a short cut

 

[Glod]

The volume of water has little relevance on how fast the tank will cycle. Are you doing a fishless cycle ? Adding ammonia and testing to see how quickly it is converted ?

 

[loveforfhishies]

i can do a fishless cycle.

but wouldint it conver faster if there wasnt as much water volume to affect the chemicals?

 

[Tolak]

I see what you're trying to get at, but the bacteria will grow at the rate they grow at regardless of the water volume. The filter and bacteria don't know if they are running on a 10 gallon tank or a 55, they grow & mature at the given rate, anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.

Bacteria do grow faster when warmer, if you are doing a fishless cycle & turn up the tank temperature it will cycle a little faster, might save a few days this way.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It would work, yes, but have less bacteria at the end. Think about it- 5ppm of ammonia in a 10g would work out as 1ppm in a 50g. It would take the same sort of time scale too.