Establishing good bacteria

[K31Scout]

How long does it take to establish good bacteria on a new sponge filter with a power head added to a well cycled tank?

I read through the sticky post on cycling and saw this was a good idea but wasn't clear on how long it takes to grow a new colony on a new filter in a seasoned tank.

[Weezer]

What other filtration do you have, if i understood the question correctly, about 1-2 weeks and watch for a mini cycle.....:)

[Coler]

How long does it take to establish good bacteria on a new sponge filter with a power head added to a well cycled tank?

I read through the sticky post on cycling and saw this was a good idea but wasn't clear on how long it takes to grow a new colony on a new filter in a seasoned tank.

you might be as well using some gravel and other media from the old tank in the new tank, reason being :

1. The more I read the more it seems that a large proportion of the bacteria reside not in the filter sponges but in the substrate.

2. If you add a new filter to a well cycled tank but the bio-load of the well cycled tank does not increase, then the bacterial colonies in the well cycled tank will not increase significantly...except perhaps organically in response to e.g. a little bit more food one day than the next day.

3. So I would tend to squeeze out mulm (water, debris etc.) from the old sponge into the new sponge, move that to the new tank with some substrate...should give very little of a cycle with sensible stocking plans and careful water monitoring. As I understand it bacterial colonies increase exponentially in response to food source & oxygen levels, so once there are some bacteria they will reproduce incredibly quickly (cellular mitosis I think - so 1 becomes 2 becomes 4 becomes 8 becomes 16 becomes 32 becomes I'm not doing that sum in my head)

...this reasoning is deductive based on reading, not on experience so I welcome anyone's view on it...

[K31Scout]

Wesser,

I have a large Whisper filter (triad) on a 30 gallon seasoned tank and want to add a 15 gal tank in another room.

Coler,

I will also add some gravel from the seasoned tank but the gravel will be a different color so it'll have to go in a mesh bag or something.

I wonder if anyone has documented how long it takes for the good bacteria to divide, under controled conditions like in my tank at 76F. I think I need to find my old high school microscope! LOL I'm sure it's been done and I know there are a lot of variables.

[Coler]

mesh bag will work...or tights (pantyhose on your side of the pond)

for your 15 I think you could do the squeezing mulm into the new sponge pretty safely with the mesh bag...and then careful monitoring of the water on adding stock, which you want to do almost immediately.

[Coler]

if you had time on your hands and wanted to read around :

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/67/12/5791 heavy on the science

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html bit of product placement but interesting

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/67/12/5791 comparison between FW and SW

[NeonJulie]

It might sound over the top, but if you really want to see how much bacteria you have grown and how much it can handle, you might want to do a side fishless cycle project. It's not expensive, since you can get bubble filters for like $5, and then a bucket or a plastic bin or extra tank would work. A heater might come in handy to make the bacteria flourish faster, but if it's room temp, it will still multiply. And then if a liquid source of ammonia if possible (ACE Hardware has clean stuff last I checked. One bottle will probably last forever at $1.60.)

I'd say if your filters etc. can handle 2-3 ppm, it can probably keep up with the new tank.

The advantage to doing this on the side, is with no fish, you can crank up the level of ammonia, whereas as stated before, you'd have to overfeed in the tank in order to encourage more bacteria to grow than is already handling your stock.

[Star_Rider]

you will get mixed results based on the variables.
food, circulation, temp, etc..etc

there are a lot of variables. one the existing colony will continue their conumption/output ie consumong food to establish bacteria on new media(assuming the food source is fixed)
new media will populate according to all of this. I usually place the media in an area with good flow..this increases exposure to food, O2 all essential to creating the seeded media.
I only do this for sponges that I intend to use for cycling a hospital tank and let the sponge float for at least 1 week. Usually much longer.

when setting up a new tank..I simply squeeze bacteria from a sponge in an existing tank into the filter of the new tank..result is cycled tank in 3-5 days..since I have several tanks running..it is easy to add more if i need it.