Cycling Question

Hollygirl

Hollygirl

Overfilter and Understock
Sep 3, 2007
2,681
1
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Chicago, Illinois
My 30 gallon has been filled and planted for a couple of weeks now. I have also been running the heater (it is set at 75) and the HOB filter which is a Penguin 200. The filter has an extra slot so that you can either use another cartridge which they sell for the filter, or buy the optional basket and fill with your own media. I have a standard cartridge made for the unit in there now, and I purchased the optional basket. I have filter floss in the cartridge basket for the 20 gallon, with the intention of putting it in the basket for the 30 gallon to help cycle the tank. The floss has been running in the 20 gallon filter for 3 weeks now. Here are my questions.

1. Is 3 weeks enough time for the floss to pick up enough beneficial bacteria, or should I give it another week.

2. If it is enough time, should I add the fish from the 20 gallon all at once, or should I add them over a period of several days?

Thanks in advance!
 
Three weeks is plenty.

I'd add maybe 25% of the fish for starters, wait a couple weeks, add another 25%, wait a couple weeks, add 25% and so on.

I don't think a partial bacteria load for a 20g would be enough to completely insta-cycle a 30g to full stocking levels.

Really you could probably do it just a week between fish additions, testing the water daily will tell you what is going on.


Three weeks in the 20g will definitely build up enough to stock partially in the new tank without any cycle at all.
 
What I was concerned about was the amount of fish that I would need so that I didn't lose the bacteria in the floss. Does that make sense? In other words I don't want the bacteria to decrease. The filter I have has room for two cartridges so I will be leaving in the standard and adding the additional basket. I also have a very porous rock in the 20 that I was going to add to the 30 when I add some of the fish.
 
I agree with bobnova, I would say if using gravel substrate in the 20 gall take out about 2-3 cups and put it into mesh bags or pantie hose and tie them off and place through out the 30 gal, with the filter media from the 20 gal and like bob said 25% of the fish that are going in there, you should see a huge difference in two to 3 days.
 
I think you are entirely right Hollygirl. The media you have put into the 20 has taken over part of the bioload in that tank. When you move the media, if you move the right fraction of the fish, both tanks will have stable filter bacterial populations. If you moved the entire filter over, you could move all the fish. the bacteria don't care how much water goes by, they do care if they get enough ammonia to stay alive and they respond to too much or too little by adjusting their numbers. With that said, I would probably move half or less of the fish because as others have said, you are leaving the gravel part of your biofilter behind and are not moving all of the filter media either. This means that even to move half of the fish there is likely to be a short period of adjustment while both tanks filters adjust their biological filtering capability. If you can come anywhere close with your estimate of the needed ratio, everything should be very close by the end of the first 24 hours. Testing will be the ultimate check on how close your guess was.
 
OldMan47 said:
I think you are entirely right Hollygirl. The media you have put into the 20 has taken over part of the bioload in that tank. When you move the media, if you move the right fraction of the fish, both tanks will have stable filter bacterial populations. If you moved the entire filter over, you could move all the fish. the bacteria don't care how much water goes by, they do care if they get enough ammonia to stay alive and they respond to too much or too little by adjusting their numbers. With that said, I would probably move half or less of the fish because as others have said, you are leaving the gravel part of your biofilter behind and are not moving all of the filter media either. This means that even to move half of the fish there is likely to be a short period of adjustment while both tanks filters adjust their biological filtering capability. If you can come anywhere close with your estimate of the needed ratio, everything should be very close by the end of the first 24 hours. Testing will be the ultimate check on how close your guess was.
Click to expand...
Thanks OldMan47 you have answered another question that I was going to ask, and that was how much time that the adjustment would take. I will be using my test kit daily after the move. I just hope that the rock I plan to move (I think it is a lava rock, very porous, red in color, I will post pics), doesn't take too much beneficial bacteria from the 20 gallon.
 
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