Quick Advice On Fry Sponge Filter.

[scorphonic]

I'm taking delivery of my new 96L fry tank today and my new 180L tank!! (the fry tank is ment to be a hospital tank but....better not let it sit doing nothing!! )

The filter as mentioned in the title is a sponge filter which is powered by an air pump. (fry friendly!)

To seed this filter I'm going to take some estabilished medium from my 180l tank's internal filter. My question is this: Should I squeeze the mature filter medium onto the dry fry filter or is it best just to put everything together, fill the tank with dechlorinated water, and just pour the mature medium into the water of the tank?

Or does it really matter at all what way I do it?

Am I being too darn particular?

 

[dc3]

I usually squeeze the established sponge into a ziploc bag and soak the new one in it for a bit - give it a good shake around to try and get as much absorbed (oh yea, I wet the new sponge in old tank water first, so it will sink to the bottom as soon as it goes in). The leftover sludge-water I then pour into the new tank. It's probably more of a ritual than practical - but it seems to work for me.

Oh yea - my discus-guy recently showed me how I can stack hydrosponges, so I bought an extra to #4 sit atop my #5 just in case I need to jump start a tank or if any of my mates need one

 

[Tolak]

You can take the mature media & put it on top of, or tie it around, the sponge filter. This is similar to the old trick of piling some gravel from a mature tank on top of a sponge filter. It gives you enough bio filtration to keep the tank cycled.

 

[scorphonic]

I like both those ideas!! Thank you both!

I think I'll first put them in a ziplock bag and then tie the medium to it overnight!! (twice the insurance!!)