Cycling

[sardesign]

I plan on doing a fishless cycle in two weeks and have read all the articles on this website about it. Instead of using gravel from my old tank... would it be wise to set up my new filter and hook it up to one of my current tanks. Would this allow the filter to start building a bacteria base for my new tank?

 

[OrionGirl]

Yep--works great. Depending on what type of media you're using, you can also just split the media--put in half new for the old setup, and put the other half in the new filter.

 

[Holly9937]

I would go with OG's suggestion if possilble, and if you stock slowly, you might be able to avoid going through the cycle all together.

By the way, good for you on the upgrade :thm: !! The balas will be VERY happy, mine are much cooler (more calm, not so spastic!!) fish in my 180 than they were in the 50. :thm:

Is this question related to moving from the 20g to the 125g? Will you keep the old tank stocked and running?

 

[sardesign]

I will try to share media but I'm going to be using two different filters with two different media. One has biomax balls and the other will use the EHEIM Substrat. Either way I think I can figure that out. The balas will go into the large tank along with my plants, pleco, and SAE's. The old tank will be cleaned of debris (from the plants) gravel vaccumed and then restock with the appropriate size fish. The tetras will stay in one 20G tank, the betta and frogs in the other 20G tank. I got flourite for my new tank (my plants will thank me later).

 

[sardesign]

P.S.

I was going to use one of the two 20 gallon tanks as a QT tank. However, I'll do that when I actually get fish. I'll leave the tetras in there to keep the bacteria alive and well.