Cycling and filters

corrieberry

corrieberry

AC Members
Mar 8, 2009
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Hi,

I have a tank running at the moment with two filters, but have another tank set-up with plants etc, just no filter - if I put in one of the filter from the other tank, do I need to leave it to cycle? The water in the unfiltered one is mostly from the filtered one - I've been putting the water in from my siphoning, then resiphoning once all the gunk has gone to the bottom. This is all in an effort to get some fry out of the main tank.

Thanks!
 
I'm sorry, but your post was a little confusing. I'd like to verify a few things.

So you have 2 tanks. You are trying to cycle a new tank, and that tank currently does not have any filters on it. This tank has plants in it, and you are trying to place some fry in there.

You also have your main tank, which has 2 filters on it. You have been siphoning water from this tank, to your planted/no filter tank, in efforts to cycle it.

Your question is is this enough, or do I need to do more?

If I understand you properly, I'd say that you can probably place the fry directly into the planted tank. The fry would probably never produce enough ammonia to keep your bacteria alive anyway. The plants will silent cycle your tank.

I would monitor the water and the first signs of ammonia, I would take squeezings off the main tank's filter into your fry tank.
 
No I'm planning to put one of the filters in the main tank into the other tank - will I still need to cycle it as normal even though it already has the bacteria in it already? This is why I'm putting the water from the main tank into the second tank - I figured it would help with the bacteria.
 
Oops, I just checked the sticky and it says that I can do this, but if the fry won't produce enough ammonia maybe I should put a couple of the adults in as well and partition the tank?
 
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If you been siphoning the main tank and pouring into the new tank I would think some of that debris would have bacteria helping the cycle of the new tank. If the plants in there came as clippings from the main tank that would work as well. The filter bacteria will die off adjusting itself to the load of the tank as the fry gets bigger and the load increases so will the bacteria. The other option since they are only fry is the plants may be the only natural filtration you need.

I throw in a few RCS in my fry tank help keep it clean.
 
So what, you think I could just put the fry in, then when they've grown up a bit put the filter in? In which case I could put the fry in straight away as the tank is already all set up?
 
Old tank water will not hold bacteria, they colonize solid surfaces. At most you'll be transferring nitrates. Move the filter and fish over at the same time. The bacteria WILL NOT die off, but will go dormant with the decreased food supply.
 
Ok - I'm going to wait a while then as the fry are still too small to hope that they won't get sucked into the filter!
 
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