does this tank need to be cycled....?

[Mrs Stretch]

HI To everyone,my name is Jo and this is my first post,I apologise if the quetions i am about to ask have been done before,i have spent 1.5hours looking through various threads.

I have a 108l tank that was given to me ready set up all i have done is added a eheim canister filter to it in exchange for the fluval3+ thats was originally in there
Yesterday my dad turned up with another tank (about the same size) for me, a friend of his had used it but got another tank and transferred all his fish into that,it came to me with everything still in place (ugf and gravel,1 live plant and several ornaments and fake plants) all looks very nice but how do i go about cycling it as the gravel was previously there wil it be cycled or should i add the old fluval3+ in there too (it has the old wool etc still in as i only got the canister a week ago and havent had chance to wash the old one out)

Hope someone can help,i am looking forward to becoming part of this community.

 

[boulderman1]

used gravel and/or filter media will cycle a tank much faster than without it, but the only way to be sure you are cycled is to test the water, with old gravel or filter media, i would let the tank run for about 5 days, then test, make sure the readings are:

0 ammonia
0 nitites
less than 25 ppm nitrate

then you can add fish, but SLOWLY

good luck

 

[dorkfish]

used gravel and/or filter media will cycle a tank much faster than without it, but the only way to be sure you are cycled is to test the water, with old gravel or filter media, i would let the tank run for about 5 days, then test, make sure the readings are:

0 ammonia
0 nitites
less than 25 ppm nitrate

This will simply prove that your readings are in an acceptable range, not that the tank is cycled. Any freshly setup tank will have those parameters. To make sure the tank is cycled, add an ammonia source (such as some fish food that will decompose and turn into ammonia) and see how long it takes for that ammonia to turn to nitrite, then nitrate. If it takes about a day, then the tank is most likely cycled. If it takes much longer than that, then I would go about doing a fishless cycle to build up the bacteria.

Did the gravel happen to dry out? If so, then most of the bacteria is likely dead. Also, you'll want to look into switching to a reverse flow UGf, as normal ugf's have a rep of sucking all the fish waist under the gravel, where it simply builds up and there is little you can do to remove it.

 

[corykid]

ya if all the gravel did not stay wet when moved, and if the wool in the old canister filter is all dried out then all ur bacteria is going to be dead

 

[Mrs Stretch]

Thanks for all who have replied so far,the gravel was kept wet,basically it has just been like a 100% water change

 

[Tommy Gun]

I would still go with Dorkfish's advice then and 'test' the tank with some pure ammonia and a test kit. Dose about 5 drops of ammonia for every 10 gallons of water in the tank (not sure on the equivalent in liters of your tank, but you can use this calculator to see: http://www.metric-conversions.org/volume/gallons-to-liters.htm )

A test kit will be really important to you and making sure that the tank is ready for fish will save you a lot of headaches down the road. Once you are confident, then you can add fish slowly like was also brought up. Too many fish put in a tank too fast can or almost always will lead to a mini-cycle, which can set you back and lead to a host of other problems that would just be easier to avoid.

Good Luck!