restarting my 10 gallon (w 1 paradise fish?) with media from my 20 gallon

[gnahc79]

So I want to restart my 10 gallon tank with media from my 20 gallon that's been running great for ~3 years. The 20 gal has 2 sponges, so is it ok to just cut 1/2 of one of the sponges to transfer to the 10 gal? The 20 will be fine and I can drop fish into the 10 immediately?

Also, I had a paradise fish in the 10 gal over a year ago and it didn't fare so well (all water readings were fine). Any tips? I'm reading everything that's available online as well...

[TropicalNorth]

Putting some of the filter media from an established tank to an uncycled tank is a great idea HOWEVER it will still take time to cycle. The 10g will probably go through a quicker cycle but it will still need to cycle. The 20g will be fine.

My advice would be put a little bit of fish food into the 10g every few days (the decaying food will provide the tank with ammonia) and test for ammonia/nitrite levels.

[Mgamer20o0]

should cut the cycle in half. i would add ammonia because you can control it better.

[gnahc79]

Ok, I'll be sure to cycle the tank before adding the fish. I don't have any new gravel yet (I want to make 1 trip to the LFS), so it's ok to cycle an empty tank right?