borrowing bacteria

[cathrynlisa]

Hi,

I plan to fishless cycle my tank. I'm setting up a tropical tank and my dad has coldwater tanks. Can I use bacteria from his tank to jump start mine? His fish are all healthy.

 

[TKOS]

That is a fine idea. It will really speed things up. Freshwater bacteria is freshwater bacteria so that is fine.

You can either grab some of the top layer of gravel, some decorations or else some filter media. If you can spare a week you coudl even run your new filter on his old tank and that would populate your filter quickly as well.

You should notice the fishless cycle progress quite nicely.

 

[cathrynlisa]

Thanks for that. Also, I was surprised to read that you could completely stock the tank all at once when the cycling is complete... is this as risky as it sounds???

 

[mostlycichlids]

I usually recommend not fully stocking all at once especially if you are speeding the nitrogen cycle. IMO i like to give the bacteria time to grow and the water chemistry to stableize I would add half of what you are planning and wait 5-10 days and add the rest.

 

[plah831]

I'm wondering if the difference in temperature from coldwater to tropical will affect the bacteria? They are probably the same species (unlike saltwater setups), but could the temperature change shock the bacters or anything?

as akapaul said, stock slowly. This will give your bacteria time to grow to accomodate more fishy waste. The only time full stocking at once is OK is when you fishless cycle (where you add ammonia to simulate a full tank load) or when you use BioSpira.

 

[mostlycichlids]

IMO I dont think so I cycled some of my (warm water) tanks with my cold water tank media with no ill effects.

 

[cathrynlisa]

I plan to fishless cycle my tank.

erm...