can i cycle with fish poop?

[Sawyer]

i know you can cycle new tanks with fish food or ammonia but i'd rather cycle with fish poop that i siphon out of some of my other tanks. you can do that, right? i've just never heard it mentioned for fish-less cycling.

 

[captaincaveman9]

fish poop will not be a good source of ammonia for cycling. since you already have an established tank, you would be better served using some media from the established tank to seed some of the bacteria in the new tank,

 

[jpappy789]

:iagree:

It would work...but not very efficient given that you already have a cycled tank.

 

[ianab]

Get a sponge from your existing tanks filter.

Squeeze the goop out of it into the new tank.

Let the new filter suck up the goop, and the attached cycle bacteria

Now you have seeded the new tank, and it will be safe for at least a small amount of fish right away.

Taking a whole dirty filter sponge and stuffing it into the new filter works even better.

But you are on the right track. Once you have one cycled tank you dont need to cycle from scratch again. Just clone the cycle to the new tank by moving filter media around.

Ian

 

[fishcatch22]

Heck, you can do it with just a sliver of media from your current tanks filter.