Potential Issue With New Tank.

[Binge]

I was going to try and do a fishless cycle on my new aquarium to set it up. I have however run into the ultimate road block. The wife says I cannot have both aquariums in the living room and that she wants my 55gal in the same spot as the 29gal...

So I had an idea to try and get the 55 gallon up and going but wanted to ask the opinion of the forum peeps that know more on this then me.
If I were to drain down my 29 and keep all of my fish in 5 gallon buckts full of thier water with an air stone and heater I could swap out the aquariums. The 55 gallon is not cycled at all however. Could I run my 29 gallon filter and the filter for the 55 both on the new tank for a month or so till the 55 got caught up then switch to just useing the 55galon filter. I dont know if this would cause an over filtering issue.

They are both marine land filters penguin 200 and penguin 330. The current tank is testing fine at this point also since I replaced the clogged filter cartride. I am also makeing the change to sand from gravel.

 

[Jenste]

if you run both the old and the new filter in the new tank, do not buy any more fish than what you already have, and keep an eye on water quality with water changes than you should be just fine.

 

[Binge]

Cool, that was the basic plan to run both while the new media builds up. I was figureing on about 6 weeks that way then trying to tanke my smaller filter back to get the other tank going again.

 

[lilfishie]

can you not put the old media in you new filter at all?

 

[Jenste]

I had thought of recommending that to - but considering he would lose all the bacteria on the inlet pipes and walls of his current filter, I thought this the better way to go.

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

If you ran a fully cycled filter with a new filter, the bacterial colony will eventually reduce in your old filter. This is because the level of waste produced by the fish will be the same and the bacteria will stabilise. No waste is means no food for the bacteria.
I think you may be right around the month mark, maybe a bit longer. See what other folk say.


I seeded a filter in a similar fashion but for a smaller tank. The new filter did have a bigger bio media capacity which took over running the tank after 6 weeks.

 

[Binge]

The current filter uses a Bio wheel for media the other uses ceramic. So they are not interchangeable. I am gonna move about half of the gravel with it since I want to build a cave section out of slate and larger rocks and do not want to compact sand with the stones. So I will get some bacteria that way as well.