When Using Media From A Mature Tank ...

[alysonpeaches]

I set up my second 96l juwel yesterday. I had some sponge filter taken from the kid's tank which has been running a couple of months without any problems. I dropped this into the juwel filter box, hoping to introduce beneficial bacteria. Most of the juwel filter media is new, just this one piece is matured from another tank.

Do I have to feed the bacteria?

How long before I can add fish to this tank?

 

[Corleone]

Generally you can stock lightly right away, but considering that the tank it came from hasn't run for a while, It might be worth doing a fishless cycle, since his bacteria won't be built up as much as they could be. It shouldn't take the full time with what you've added, and it'll beef up your bacteria before you add fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with Corleone, you follow all the full procedures for fishless cycling (per RDDs working document) except that you know you have the mature media seeded in there. You should see, potentially, the same sequence of events that fishless cyclers do except at a very accelerated pace. It will help a lot to keep a good log with time, date, temp., test results, comments etc.

Its possible the seeding will be so successful that you will not see nitrites "spike" but instead will see from your log that the filter is able to drop ammonia and nitrite to zero in less than 24 hours and you can work quickly towards the "qualifying test" when it can drop 5ppm ammonia (and the subsequent nitrite) to zero within 12 hours. Then let that verify for a few days (still feeding it ammonia every 24 hours) and you will be good to go.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Axleuk]

**coughs**Bactinette**coughs**

 

[OldMan47]

Better than bactinettes, this is live media AxleUK. It is what bactinettes tries to imitate. If you make believe that you are in a fishless cycle and measure the results, you can expect to have the whole process done in maybe a week.

 

[JenCliBee]

**coughs**Bactinette**coughs**

ive never known any 1 plug a product as much!!! u sure u dont actually work for the compay lol

 

[Efren]

**coughs**Bactinette**coughs**

ive never known any 1 plug a product as much!!! u sure u dont actually work for the compay lol

LOL

 

[waterdrop]

Its ok, I assume Axleuk's experience may be fairly typical. If one uses Bactinettes (in UK) or the former BioSpira (in US) and is one of the (apparently) lucky few for whom it works, it would tend to color all your responses.

What comes out in many, many threads on TFF is that this experience has only happened to a rather small minority of customers, whereas for the majority, the bacterial starters for one reason or another simply do not work for the person. I think it is this statistical situation that the forum is trying to communicate.

I could be wrong, and Axleuk may have performed fishless cycles on many tanks with Bactinettes, such that he has gained some statistics to report though...

~~waterdrop~~