Quick Question On New Filter

[kylealastairlove]

this may be a silly question, i'm not sure

but if i took the ceramic filter media and sponges out of a mature filter, and put them into a brand new filter, would this mean that the new filter is more or less already cycled and can be put into a stocked tank straight the way ?

 

[coolie]

As long as the medias been kept soaked and not cleaned with soap or bleach.

 

[kylealastairlove]

woohoo ! id never use soap or bleach on my filter, i wouldnt want to kill it off lol

 

[coolie]

What I would like to know (if anyone reading this knows) is if I remove all the fish from a breeding tank, only leaving a few small snails, how long will the bacterial colony last in the filter with the depleated ammonia levels?

 

[Aquascaper]

Very hard one to answer, all I can do is tell you about my experience....

Eheim external fully cycled fishless was converting 5ppm ammonia in <6hrs.

A change of plan meant turning off the filter for 48hrs while a new tank was bought.

Setup on new tank and suffered a week long mini-cycle before being able to convert 4ppm ammonia in <6hrs.