Swapping Canister Filters...

[Steffyboy]

I'll be receiving my new canister filter tomorrow for my 4ft tropical tank and I'm swapping the existing one over to my cold water tank.
Would it be ok to just plug in and not change or clean the filter.
Not too sure about the bacteria from the tropical would be ok with the cold water?
And my new canister filter...can i just plug in and filter straight away or do you have to do anything to it because it's new?
Thanks.

 

[ech0o]

Your filter bacteria should not be affected by the switch to cold water.  Keep in mind when you removed the old filter, you are removing the biological filtration, and replacing it with a filter full of un-seeded filter media.   What kind of filtration does the cold water tank currently have?
 
If it already has a filter with media, the best bet would be use that media to put inside the old canister filter that is coming to that cold tank, take the media from the old canister and stick it into the new canister, so that both of your new filters have seeded media inside of them, and can effectively do their job.
 
When you get a new filter it is always wise to rinse the inside of it out, you never know what can accumulate on chinese factory conveyor belts.  Also if it comes with any filter media, pads, ceramic, etc., you should rinse those as well as the usually have a bit of powder in them that clouds the tank up for a day or so.

 

[Steffyboy]

The cold water has an Ehiem 2012 and a Fluval plus 3 in at the moment so I'll put the sponges in the external one.
Thanks for the advice buddy