? about replacing filter and seeding new tank

[raseii]

Hi all,
I have a 10 gallon tank that has been cycled a couple weeks now. The tank was given to me with a penguin bio-wheel filter and it had the pad in the back. I just used everything that was in the tank. Well, looking at that pad which is blue it is pretty worn out and I would like to replace it. How should I go about replacing it? Since it has a bio wheel, could I just take it out and put the new one in? Also, I we bought a 55 gallon and I would like to seed it with material from my 10 gallon. It would be great if I could put that old pad into the 55 but I dont want to disturb my 10 gallon. What else could I use from my 10g? The guy at the LFS told me to do a gravel vac and put the dirty water in, but I dont want to add all that waste to a new tank.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[OrionGirl]

The old pad can be removed--most of the beneficial bacteria will be in the preferred media, ie, the bio-wheel. You can then use the pad to seed the new tank. With the 10 being fairly new, I wouldn't bother pulling anything else from it. An older, established tank could offer some mulm, but it's unlikely to be present in a new tank, and the dirty water won't import much other than the wastes, as you suspected.

In established tanks, especially planted tanks, there's a layer of mulm--looks like soft, fluffy, dark grunge--that is host to micro fauna that's beneficial to add to a new setup, and it's easily pulled from the substrate with a gravel vac. Then let it settle out of the water, and add to a new tank.