The Filter In My Established Tank Has Died. Help Me Plaease

[doktor doris]

hullo

The filter in my established tank has died, it is the attach to the interior with suckers type.

I have a slightly smaller filter that also attaches to the tank interior, I bought it just in case of emergencies like this one.

But how do I transfer some bacteria to the unused filter?

Should I just rinse the crud of the old broken one in tank water and the really wring it out into the tank, or into the actual filter.
Or should I do something completely different?

I cannot just exchange filters because the broken one was slightly posher than the emergency one, the knackered one has a cylindrical sponge whereas the emergency one has a flat sponge which is folded into a C shape to fit the box.

The tank is stuffed with fish so I don't want to start the cycle from scratch.

Thanks for your time

doris

 

[minxfishy]

Put as much of the media from the old filter into the emercency one, I wouldnt rinse it first as that will wash away some of the bacteria. This will effectively cycle the filter, althought you wont have as much media in it as the old. Keep the rest of the media in a net bag next to the outlet pipe of the new filter until you can get a filter large enough for the tank and for the media.