Second Tank Help

mr arnj · Dec 7, 2009

ok well i currently have a cycled tank with a newt and 2 fish in and have realised that this shouldnt really b dun so i am going to get another seperate tank for my newt but i have a couple of questions

1. how would i cycle my tank quickly? (use completely gravel from my current tank? anything to do with the filter? or even use some of the same water?)

2. would a newt need a heater or be ok in room temperature? (i live in Manchester, Northern England)

thanks very much for any help

waterdrop · Dec 7, 2009

1) Moving 1/3 of the mature media in a mature filter over into the new filter (you have to be creative with scissors or other methods sometimes to get this to work) is by far the most effective way to speed up a fishless cycle. Moving some gravel will barely help at all and moving water does nothing. The beneficial bacteria live almost entirely bound tightly to the surfaces of the filter media where there is maximum ammonia and oxygen flowing past them and they don't migrate far or fast.

2) If you google "how to care for a newt," (besides getting pictures of Newt Gingrich if you have "images" selected :lol:

) you should see several articles to read. Most recommend room temperature but that the newt not be placed near a window or where there could be drafts. One article has an interesting discussion about how newts need to be prepared for hibernation by cooling them very slowly (over 3 weeks) down to 5C so they can hibernate in some moist sand for the next 3 months before you slowly bring them out of it.

~~waterdrop~~

mr arnj · Dec 8, 2009

waterdrop said:
1) Moving 1/3 of the mature media in a mature filter over into the new filter (you have to be creative with scissors or other methods sometimes to get this to work) is by far the most effective way to speed up a fishless cycle. Moving some gravel will barely help at all and moving water does nothing. The beneficial bacteria live almost entirely bound tightly to the surfaces of the filter media where there is maximum ammonia and oxygen flowing past them and they don't migrate far or fast.

2) If you google "how to care for a newt," (besides getting pictures of Newt Gingrich if you have "images" selected ) you should see several articles to read. Most recommend room temperature but that the newt not be placed near a window or where there could be drafts. One article has an interesting discussion about how newts need to be prepared for hibernation by cooling them very slowly (over 3 weeks) down to 5C so they can hibernate in some moist sand for the next 3 months before you slowly bring them out of it.

~~waterdrop~~

ok so like cut the sponge up n put it in the new filter? yeah ok, i know my newt is completely aquuatic just not 100% clear on the exact species its belly seems like a fire bellies but its built like a red spotted who knows but i might ave to pay the shop a visit again

thanks for your help

waterdrop · Dec 8, 2009

Yes, so if you can picture this, a sponge in a filter that's been running at least several months, say in a normal tank with fish, will look very brown and messy when you get into the filter. The loose brown stuff is debris, organic debris, that's in the process of breaking down and being turned into ammonia in many cases, but some of it is just inorganic and will just sit there trapped in the sponge. When we lightly squeeze and rinse the sponge in tank water at the 2week or monthly clean of the filter, we are rinsing away that debris and unclogging the filter. But even when we do that there is still a brown look to the sponge. This leftover brown look that's like a stain is the biofilm and autotrophic bacteria that is the thing that is beneficial to us, that is our "biofilter."

We can take this "mature media," this stained sponge, and cut it up with scissors if we need to and figure out ways to stash it into a new filter, even if that new filter has a whole different shape and takes very differently shaped cartridges or sponges. The very best is when we can figure out what direction the water flows through the filter and place our little scraps of mature media into a position just before the new clean sponge in the water flow. Not very many of the autotrophic bacteria will come loose from the old media and they may not float that far, so if we have the new biomedia (the new sponge for example) sitting right behind the old media in the water flow path then it will be right there to trap these few migrating autotropic bacterial cells and they will stick to the new sponge and start new colonies on the new sponge.

~~waterdrop~~