new cycle with established gravel

drawnon

drawnon

AC Members
Jul 9, 2006
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bristol ct
So I’ve been reading up on cycling a new tank with the help from an established tank. And I have, what I think, is a pretty good plan of attack. I was hoping some more experienced people would take a look, and tell me if I’m on the right path or not.
I have a 2 year old, well established 30 gallon, with an emperor 280. I am setting up a 10 gallon for a beta. I bought a penguin 100 for the 10 gallon.
I was thinking of running the penguin 100 in conjunction with the emperor 280 in the 30 gallon for maybe a week to “prime”, or jump start the bacteria on the bio wheel of the penguin. Then set up the 10 gallon, with the penguin. I was going to put a scoop of my established gravel in pantyhose in the 10 gallon and rest that on the new gravel bed, and put a scoop of established gravel in the filter compartment of the penguin. And crank my heater as high as it goes. Also maybe use 50 or more percent of the water from my 30 gallon tanks water change.
So from what I know, and what I’ve been reading, this should only take a week or two to cycle.
Will this harm my 30 gallon by running the penguin in it?
I’m not going to kill fish to cycle, so do I need to add pure ammonia along with this bacteria transfer? Maybe a pinch of fish food? i read somewhere someone used a piece of spoiled raw shrimp? gross.
I’m wondering about the beta also. Will he get lonely (if fish do indeed get lonely)?
What do other 10 gallon beta home owners add to their tanks for companionship?
Thanks for any advice, ideas, and suggestions.
James
 
if you run your new filter on your established tank and transfer some of the gravel via the panty hose, you should avoid a detectable cycle on your betta tank. When I do this, I run my "new" filter on my established tank for about 2 weeks then put it on the new tank, add some established gravel, add water and fish, and monitor my levels. I have yet to have a detectable cycle with this method. you could add an apple snail with your betta or maybe a small school of tetras.
 
It sounds like you are on the right track. Seed the new filter on the established tank for a couple of weeks and then transfer it to the new tank along with some gravel placed in an unused nylon stocking placed under the intake of the filter or near an air stone. With that you will be good to go. As you said, putting some established gravel n the filter itself is also a great idea if you have something to hold the gravel inside the filter so it does not go everywhere.

As far as stocking goes, you can plant the tank so the fish have a lot of hiding places. This will also help the fish feel more secure and they will come out of hiding so you can enjoy them more.If you are going for a male betta you could put an apple snail in with him. They come in a variety of colors and they are fairly good at algae clean up. They also like to roam around the tank rummaging for other food. If you want you could do a couple of female bettas with the snail if you are not doing a male betta in this tank. Just do not put the male and the females togather. That would be a disaster.

Hope this helps.

Marinemom
 
are you using any filter material in the filter in the established tank? if so you can transfer that to the new filter.
I have used filter squeezins to jump start a new tank..
it can take as little as 3 days using this method.
the only issue I see with running your new filter in conjunction with the established filter..is there is a fixed amount of bacteria in the established tank..in essence the bacteria is fed by the waste and there is only enough waste for that population..yes you will get bacteria in the new filter but..it will be a small population and when you remove the new filter the bacteria will need to establish back in the established filter..
you could potentially have two mini cycles.

albeit they should only be very small spikes.
 
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