Cycling a tank

[DaisyGirl]

I recieved a heated (unplugged heater) 10g tank for christmas last year, and I have 1 lonely goldfish in there. I am buying a goldfish 10g tank without a heater, to save money, and was wondering; to speed up my cycling process could i take the filter catridge out of my established tank and put it in the new tank and put a new cartridge in the established tank?

Would that speed up the cycling? If so, by how much?

or would that just make the tank dirty?

 

[Gunnie]

Yep. That is what lots of folks do. You may get a small ammonia spike, but your tank should basically be cycled with that media cartridge. Leave it in there for awhile so more bacteria can collect in your gravel and other parts of your tank though.

 

[Remmy]

If you took the established sponge and put it in the new filter then your tank would be almost instantly cycled
i'm not too sure about putting the new sponge into the established tank though, there might be a shortage of bacteria and you might get ammonia spikes
what you could do is squeeze some 'juice' (which will contain some good bacteria) from the old sponge onto the new one, then put the new sponge in your established tank, seeing as there is bacteria on your gravel aswell i think it'll be okay until the bacteria colony in the new sponge grows

 

[TKOS]

A 10 gallon tank is too smallfor a goldfish. I wouldn't buy another tank the same size. Goldfish get huge. Look at tetras instead if you want to use a 10 gallon tank.

 

[DaisyGirl]

i already have a goldfish, but only 1 and its there while it grows a little bigger so i can build a pond for it over the summer. Until then I have it inside, while it is still small. Believe me, I wouldnt torture a goldfish like that, and this goldfish is under 1", so i dont think it will be jumping to 10" within 5-6 months, the most it could grow is probably 3" so it would still have enough room till summer.

Also, another question:

I have decided to have 1 dwarf gourami, and a platy trio, In my new 10g. Is there anything else I could add to this tank?