So a friend of mine who's been helping me with gathering stuff for my tank etc. and has a tank similair to the one I'm getting is going to give me his old filter media. Can you fill me in on how to cycle the tank using this? It helps expedite the process from what I understand, correct?
Cycling with someones filter
- Thread starter AngelThoughts
- Start date
If you are getting the media directly from a healthy tank, you can put it in your filter and do one of two things. A) Add a small load of fish (about 1/4 what's in his tank) immediately. The media will provide the bacteria to support these fish, and you can then add 1-2 fish every other week until stocked. or, B) put the media in, and follow the fishless cycling method of adding ammonia and testing daily until the ammonia and nitrites hit 0--should be pretty quickly, but will give you some experience in testing water without worrying about killing/hurting fish.
Make sure the media does not dry out between your tank and his, and that it doesn't go without food (either fish inthe tank or ammonia) for more than about 1 day.
Make sure the media does not dry out between your tank and his, and that it doesn't go without food (either fish inthe tank or ammonia) for more than about 1 day.