Upgrading Filters - Cycle Impact?

[tmh0921]

Hi all,
I'm a long time viewer, but new poster to this forum. I'm hoping some of you with more expertise can answer a question for me.

I currently have 2 tropical freshwater community tanks:
20 US gallon with an Aquaclear50 HOB filter
30 US gallon with an Aquaclear70 and an Aquaclear30 HOB filter

After a long battle both are cycled and have been stable at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, ~15 to 20 Nitrates, Ph 7.4 for about a month.

My 30g is in danger of becoming overstocked due to guppy and platy births. I leave the moms in the tank and let nature take it's course, with the help of a 'nursery' of dense plants and bigger rocks in one corner. I currently have about 3 guppy fry and 4 - 6 platy fry (that I can see) hanging out in the nursery with some cherry shrimp and ghost shrimp

Anyway, until the fry get bigger and I can catch and transfer them, I want to up my filtration to account for the extra bioload (and I'm sure this will be an ongoing process since the females are pregnant again).

If I swap my Aquaclear 70 for an Aquaclear 110, and move the colonized media to the new filter in addition to the new media in the filter, will this mess my cycle (I.e. Cause a new cycle)?

I plan to move one of the existing filters to the 20g, so both tanks would have dual filters. I prefer over filtration and redundancy.

Thanks!

 

[tmh0921]

By the way - my aquaclear filters all have the appropriate size foam insert, a media bag of Eheim Sunstrat Pro, and a media bag of biomax. Strictly mechanical and biological filtration, no carbon.

 

[Miles_hot]

Should be dine really - the media which is able to cope with the tank as it stands will all be transfered so it can.still deal with the tank. I would ensure that the new media is places after the old in re watt path through the filter and ensure that the old media is well distribute across the watt path so that all the watt passing through the filter has to go over at least some of the old stuff. Keep doing regular tests to ensure you spot act issues