Using Existing Media

[thai]

Hi
I took over a friend's 96 litre tank yesterday. He emptied it and bought it to me and i set it up immediately. It was probably empty for about an hour or so. We put all the filter sponges in a bag of the tank water to keep it wet. There were only 3 fish and 2 went into my 180 litre tank and 1 into my 240 litre tank. I put 2 mollies into the 96 litre.
Because the media was kept wet and put straight back into the tank, is this tank cycled?
Readings today are: ammonia0. nitrite.5 and nitrates 15.
Thanx

 

[Chri$]

when you added new water to the tank did you use a water conditioner??

 

[thai]

when you added new water to the tank did you use a water conditioner??

yes, i did. the amount for new tank set up.

 

[Chri$]

i would guess concidering that you have kept the old filter songes in old aquarium water, which should keep the bacteria alive the tank could be fine to add fish, but this may be risky i would wait for a more experienced opinion before taking action. You may have to add more bacteria and wait for a couple of weeks.

 

[Undawada]

You should be fine. As long as the sponges were kept wet, some of the bacteria will have survived.

You might get a mini-cycle, so watch your levels, but from personal experience, moving media in the duration of an hour is fine.

 

[Durbkat]

The bacteria should be fine because when I cloned my 55g with the filter from my 20g I aclimated the fish for almost an hour before I added them to the tank.

 

[thai]

Have checked water again tonight and ammonia 0, nitrites.1 and nitrates 15. all seems well