Second Tank

[TarkMalbot]

I have read a lot about people having more than one tank for various reasons. I have a nice colourful tank and cabinate in the house as my main attraction but was thinking of having a little one in the garage out of the way so I can quarantine my new fish and maybe use it as a fry tank if my fish breed.

One thing I was thinking of is if I did a fishless cycle in that tank would I be able to add the water from this when complete to my tank that is cycling with fish in? Providing the fishless cycle finishes before the other tank. To try and keep the fish I have alive I am going to do 10-15% water changes every few days to stop the ammonia and Nitrite levels getting too high. Will this make the cycle take much longer and the fishless cycle complete first?

I would only want a small and cheap tank so the running costs were low and I dont have any space for it in the house so would need to live in the garage workshop area. Providing the heater worked would the colder temp in the garage be ok?

Thanks,
Mark.

 

[DarkEntity]

You dont need to cycle the spare tank as you have a tank running already, all you need to do is when you want to add fish to the new tank is take some filter media from the current running tank and put this in a filter in the new tank with some of the water from your mature tank, job done.

Its called filter cloning.

 

[TarkMalbot]

How do you do this with filter media. What if you have two different tanks with two different types of filter? How do you put one in the other.

 

[backtotropical]

How do you do this with filter media. What if you have two different tanks with two different types of filter? How do you put one in the other.

What type of filter is on your existing tank, Mark? What media does it have in it? Sponge? Ceramic Rings?............

 

[TarkMalbot]

It is an Aqua One 850 with the following:

2 x Carbon Cartridge with Filter Wool + 2 x Sponge Pad + Ceramic Noodles

 

[backtotropical]

Most of the beneficial bacteria will be on your sponge and ceramic noodles.

All you do is remove some sponge / ceramic noodles (no more than 25%) and put them in your other filter.

You then have an instantly cycled filter on your other tank.