Using Mature Filter Sponges To Cycle?

[jakester]

Hi,
Can I use some of the old filter sponges from my mature tank to cycle my new one? Also would I then need to/ be able to add a couple of fish that I would like to breed (they're relatively hardy) in the next few hours after I have put the sponges in? If the readings show 0.25 amm and 0.5 nitrite as soon as the sponges in. ( these chemicals are present from when I picked up the tank and added the fish that came with it, I had to move them to my other tank due to a sudden ammonia and nitrite spike!) Will these reading go down to 0 due to the friendly bacteria in the mature sponges?

Thanks Jakester

 

[CageUK]

Replying, not as an expert but as someone who has fishless cycled tanks with mature medium, I would be cautious about putting fish in straight away even with mature medium. If you use the entire contents of a matured filter including the mulm then you may possibly get away with it, obviously keeping a careful eye on the water stats but that of course depends on wether the loading in the mature tank is similar to the new one.

If you are just using a portion of the medium then there may not be enough bacteria to cope with the new loading.

Aside from that, I understand that mature tanks even though most of the bacteria are in the filter, there are some residual traces throughout the tank however minimal so this may take an effect as well.

When I cycled my tank and fed it ammonia, it still took a few days to cycle even with some (but not all) mature medium installed.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tolak]

What you are doing if you are using mature media is more of a tank cloning than cycling. A mature nitrifying bacteria colony can double in 24 hours, so if you take a portion of matire media from one tank, making sure to withold feeding the fish in that tank for 24 hours you should be fine.

Do the same with the new tank with the transferred media, less food means less waste produced. This way both sets of media have less waste to process, giving them a chance to catch up with the bio load.

I do this on a regular basis, shutting down tanks as fish are sold, and running the filters in a stocked tank. As fish hatch I transfer a filter, ease up on feeding for a day, and then continue as usual.