Cycling questions - from an established tank

I'm not the most knowledgable on here but before you add fish you want to make sure your cycle is finished. I would take some media from your other filter and put it in your tank (some gravel will help but most of the bacteria live in the filter unless you have a UGF). I think you could run both filters at the same time and that should also establish the colony very quickly. You will want to follow the procedure for a fishless cycle in the article in this forum. You dose ammonia daily as described. You will want to monitor your ammonia levels daily. Once ammonia and nitrites are at 0 within 24 hours of dosing ammonia then you can add all of your fish at once.

I think the problem is some people are telling you to do a fishy cycle (adding a few at a time and wait a while). While the other is getting you to cycle first then add your fish. The article on cycling will help you a lot though.

I'm currently doing a fishless cycle and I used gravel from 2 other aquariums (friends, otherwise I would have asked for actual filter gunk which is even better).

You don't want to switch over your filter though if you want to continue running the 20g. As your other aquarium will need filtration. If you take a portion of the media and gunk it will help accelerate the process in your new tank without hurting your established tank.

I think that I would get setup -- put the HOB from your established tank on -- and then feed it 3 ppm of clear/pure ammonia each day and monitor ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. If you just put the filter on and have nothing to feed it, the beneficial bacteria will starve and then you'll be up the creek and likely end up doing a full fishy cycle.

By feeding ammonia over several days, you'll be able to see that the bacteria are working -- and also help the colony to expand for the new tank. If you dose to 3 ppm in the 65g, you'll start establishing a much larger colony than you probably even need -- but I'd much rather have too much than not enough when you add your fish.

I would dose in the morning -- then check in the evening -- my 36g never needed a full 24 hours to eat 3 ppm -- then watch your trites and trates -- when you have nitrates and NO nitrites or ammonia, you should be cycled -- I'd then do a large water change with the goal of getting the initial nitrates down around 20 -- then I'd add all the fish at once.

I am also not an expert -- these tips are just from doing a fishless on my 36 and then doing the same as you are doing with my two other tanks (though I used just the filter media and they were from a larger volume of water than I was cycling -- thus mine went much faster).

Will you be keeping the 20g running? If not, move over the filter, your fish and you're all set. Or, if you are going to keep the 20g up, run the filter for the 65 on the 20 for a couple of weeks, then transfer it over. Or If you have extra media in your 20g filter (sponges, etc.) take some of that, put in your 60g filter and you're all set.

Either way you go, I would add fish slowly, that way your bacteria have time to catch up with the new/bigger fish load.

You can buy Clear Ammonia at Walmart for $0.99. Its really the best way to really control the ammonia levels exactly. Some gravel will help since you have a UGF, put that in some nylon hose and put it in the new tank for a while. You could probably switch your hob filter over to the new tank for a while since you have the UGF as well. It really shouldn't take long to get your new filter established.

Or can you take most of your filter media out of the 20g and put it in the filter for the 60g? That should pretty much instantly cycle the tank if you can get alot of established media into it