Need Advice Please

[cocomonkey24k]

I have recently purchased a job lot of tanks(7in total) filters, heaters ect. Here's the question.

I already have a Fluval roma 200 setup in my living room which is cycled. I'm wanting to setup another tank out of the joblot.
If I add another filter to my roma200 would I be able to remove it and add it to a new setup to speed the cycle period up, or would this mean the filter is cycled ?

Thanks in advance. Scott

 

[BigbruiserAl]

How long has it been cycled? if ist been 3-4 months just take out half the media place in new filter and with some luck a fishless cycle may only take 30days or so

 

[cocomonkey24k]

Not sure how long it's been cycled as I bought it second hand and it was still setup and working when I arrived to collect it.

I dont really want to change or remove anything from inside my filter I would much prefer to find another way around this issue.

Would adding another filter damage the existing bacteria of my main filter or would bacteria grow in both filters ?

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Putting another filter in the tank and waiting until there is enough bacteria to sustain another on its will take months. Your best bet is my advice above or just do a fishless cycle from scratch

 

[cocomonkey24k]

Thanks for the advice mate. Fishless cycle it is then. This could be interesting !!!!!

 

[waterdrop]

There is usually no need to be reluctant about using some of your own mature media to enhance the start of creating a new biofilter. The general rule you should follow is to remove no more than 1/3 of the biomedia portion of your mature filter (you have to get creative (scissors etc.) sometimes.) In practice, members report that this rarely ever causes a spike in the donor tank, although of course you need to do daily testing when doing this sort of thing. If there is a possibility your second-hand "mature" tank is actually immature then less than a third might be in order.

In addition, it is also helpful to follow up a donation with the act of "cleaning" the mature filter media *IN* the new tank, so that the new filter pulls in lots of debris from the old filter and spreads it around in the new filter media. This done alone is not nearly as good as actual media movement but together with it is a significant additional enhancement.

In either of these cases the filter should still enter a fishless cycle so that it can be qualified prior to exposing fish to the system. One just hopes that the fishless cycle will be significantly speeded up due to the donation actions. Media must of course be kept wet with tank water (not tap water) during any of the above operations.

If you've already had the chance to practice fishless cycling and have developed that skill then having a chance to develop this sort of donation skill can be an enhancement of how you go about the hobby. With a bunch of new tanks, this could be useful!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Mature media makes a good material to jump start any new filter. If you are reluctant to use up some mature media as WD suggested, just set up a new tank and clean the existing filter in the tank. Enough mature bacteria will come loose during a typical cleaning to give your new filter a great jump start. I do that and follow it with a fishless cycle just to make sure the clone has taken. By the end of the first week I am usually content that I have a successful clone going.