Cycling new tank

MollyFan1

MollyFan1

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Nov 27, 2006
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Hello! I have a new 20 gallon tank. Right now, I've been running the 20-gal filter on my 10 gallon for more than a week. I was just wondering what would be the best thing to do to get my 20-gal cycled. I posted about this before and got different views on this. I don't know if I should keep the 20-gal filter running on the 10-gal for 2 more weeks and then switch it to the 20 gallon. Or if I should just move the 20-gal filter into the 20-gal tank and just continue with adding ammonia? What would be the quicker way? I want to move my fishies over...
 
WeeNe858 said:
take some of your water and move it over to the new tank.. along with the filter.. and you should be able to move the fishes over without stressing them or the tank
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moving the water doesnt anything. the bacteria is in the gravel and filter. i would also not move fish over until the tank is cycled.
 
Thank you for the help! I will move the filter over and begin adding ammonia.
 
Its always hard to wait

Just think how many fishies die because new tank owners do not wait to properly cycle the tank.

The best way by far is to be patient to properly cycle the tank - and also remember that you cant just add alot of fish at once even to a properly established tank.

Of course most of us dont want to wait - we want to head out to the LFS and stock the tank right away.

One thing that really speeds up the process - if you have a tank already established or a friend has a tank - just change out some of the filter media from the established tank and move it to the new filter. (of course being careful not to take too much of the media from the first filter)

Another thing is to start out with some 15 cent feeder fish - that way you have some life in the tank, help to cycle the tank, plus they are very hardy fish and finally if you do have a disaster it does not hurt as much. You can always bring the feeder fish back to the LFS at the end.
 
*shrugs* Mine's an old trick I've used for a long time. I usually try to do a water transfer from an established aquarium, cut a square from an old filter (or pull one of the bio-balls) and place it in the new filter's reservoir, and pick a hardy... or expendible... fish for the finishing maturation. Yeah, it's crude and it can be argued that the killing of a couple of feeder guppies is awful... but I just turn around and feed them, living or not, to my Senegal Bichir (or when I was younger, my turtle), so it works for me.

You could do a lot of what I just offered and simply leave out the fish if that's not an option you're comfortable with, of course. By adding water and pieces of my old filters into a tank, I've never had any cloudiness or other such issues with maturing a new tank...
 
Kyohti said:
*shrugs* Mine's an old trick I've used for a long time. I usually try to do a water transfer from an established aquarium, cut a square from an old filter (or pull one of the bio-balls) and place it in the new filter's reservoir, and pick a hardy... or expendible... fish for the finishing maturation. Yeah, it's crude and it can be argued that the killing of a couple of feeder guppies is awful... but I just turn around and feed them, living or not, to my Senegal Bichir (or when I was younger, my turtle), so it works for me.

You could do a lot of what I just offered and simply leave out the fish if that's not an option you're comfortable with, of course. By adding water and pieces of my old filters into a tank, I've never had any cloudiness or other such issues with maturing a new tank...
Click to expand...

the filter media or bio balls will speed up the cycle. there is little to no bacteria in the water. goldfish dont make very good feeders.
 
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