Cycling with pre-established filter media

E

evster

AC Members
Oct 12, 2006
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San Diego, CA
Hi everyone. I have a new eclipse hex 5G in my office that I just put water in yesterday. I was planning on taking my old filter from my 20G at home (since it needs to be replaced) and stuffing some of the material into the filter area on my 5G.

There are currently no fish in the 5G, but I've read in other threads that to keep the beneficial bacteria on the old filter alive I will need some fish (or I would assume some other form of ammonia) to keep the cycle going.

So my question is....How long should it take to cycle using the method I described? Should I put fish (2 zebra danios to start) in the 5G when I put the old filter in there? Would it work to just keep adding fish food to the empty tank once the old filter is in place so there is some form of ammonia in the tank? What are your experiences when cycling a tank with this method?

Thanks!
 
That is the BEST way to set up a tank....that is how I set up all my tanks...pretty much instant cycling if you keep the numbers low to begin with...I also add Seachem Stability to boost the new tank set up along with the filter material...can you use the entire filter from your 20g for the new 5g? That would even be better. I run new filters on established tanks and move them over to the new tanks after about a month. I haven't seen "ammonia spikes" in years....you can add the 2 danios and let the tank fully establish for a couple weeks more before adding more fish. Check your water parameters just in case as you go. Good luck!
 
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