I am planning on doing a fishless cycle for the first time. My question is can complete the fishless cylce in a bare bottom 10 gallon tank then simply transfer the filter in this tank to a much larger tank without the fear of the large tank cycling again? My plan is to have the filter ready for my 120 gallon tank when I buy it in late january. I am assuming that most of the beneficial bacteria will be in the filter since the 10 gallon is bare bottom with nothing but the filter and small bubble wand. Will this work or not?
Fishless cycle from small tank to big?
- Thread starter goldfish freak
- Start date
"All tanks cycle"
...but this makes it about as difficult as you could imagine for the nitrifying bacteria to get started.
Do you have an aquarium already? If so, just add a second h.o.t. filter for a month, then transfer.
Planted tanks cycle effortlessly.
I came home a few months ago with a female for my Paradisefish. I took a square two-gallon glass container I have. I took a square (flat-sided) deli container and scraped up as much of the very upper surface gravel in a well-matured tank as I could get and spread it over the base of the glass container. It barely covered the whole bottom. I added a young Bolbitis Fern and young Java Fern plantlets and Java Moss to about 3/4 fill the container. I added water from my water-change container. I put her right in there.
...instantly cycled. Never a breath of ammonia or a hint of nitrite.
...but this makes it about as difficult as you could imagine for the nitrifying bacteria to get started.
Do you have an aquarium already? If so, just add a second h.o.t. filter for a month, then transfer.
Planted tanks cycle effortlessly.
I came home a few months ago with a female for my Paradisefish. I took a square two-gallon glass container I have. I took a square (flat-sided) deli container and scraped up as much of the very upper surface gravel in a well-matured tank as I could get and spread it over the base of the glass container. It barely covered the whole bottom. I added a young Bolbitis Fern and young Java Fern plantlets and Java Moss to about 3/4 fill the container. I added water from my water-change container. I put her right in there.
...instantly cycled. Never a breath of ammonia or a hint of nitrite.
Please explain why it would make a difference if I used the same new filter in a fishless cycle wether I used a 10 gallon or 120 gallon tank? From my understanding you are still maintaining the same level of ammonia regardless of the tank size. 5 ppm. By the way I do not have a mature freshwater tank available to place a additional filter in. The mature tank I currently own is high level brackish.
I'd think it should certainly give you a good colony in the filter, but the filter contains only a portion of the bacteria in an established tank. There was a thread back before the great changeover that had it at 15%, with the rest living on the glass, the substrate, the rest of the aquascaping. This might be what WetMan means by "All tanks must cycle…". I'm not quite sure what he means by "…this makes it about as difficult as you could imagine for the nitrifying bacteria to get started".
Sounds good to me, but I'd add a thin layer of whatever type substrate you eventually want to use as well to get some bacteria going in there. I'd test the results by finishing the fishless cycle in the big tank, just to be sure.
Sounds good to me, but I'd add a thin layer of whatever type substrate you eventually want to use as well to get some bacteria going in there. I'd test the results by finishing the fishless cycle in the big tank, just to be sure.
I have read the thread that you mentioned. I also remember that opinions were expressed that if the tank was bare and heavily stocked that most of the bacteria would colonize in the filter. The 10 gallon that I am using is bare and the 5ppm of ammonia simulates a heavily stocked tank. I might just do that substrate idea. Thanks.
lets just say for arguments sake that 10 gals of water has 10,000,000 parts. ammonia at 5ppm in 10 gals. would make it 50 parts. in a 120 gal. tank there would be 120,000,000 parts. which wouldput the ammonia at 600 parts. so for the filter to consume all of the ammonia in the ten gal it only has to consume 50 parts which would only make 50 parts of nitrite. in the 120 the filter would have to consume 600 parts of ammonia making 600 parts of nitrite. so if you cycled the filter in the ten it would only be able to handle 50 of ammonia, if your 120 produced 600 parts of ammonia then your filter would have to cycle up to that load.
Hmm... Interesting point, it sounds logical. Okay maybe if I give a couple more details as to what type, size and number of fish I am cycling for, it would help. My plan is to have a filter ready for a single 5 inch long(tail included) goldfish. This will be a ranchu, which is a heavy bodied variety.
you could always start the fishless cycle of filter on the 10gal then transfer it over and fishless cycle your 120gal. Since you already have the seeded filter the cycle on the 120gal should only take a few days.
I always do this when i get new tanks.Move the seeded filter to the new tank and just add ammonia to the new tank to make sure the filter it eating enough of the ammonia for hte bio load i want.
Also you could jsut wait and fishless cycle your new tank since it doesn't take very long(mine took 12 days with no seeded material added)
I always do this when i get new tanks.Move the seeded filter to the new tank and just add ammonia to the new tank to make sure the filter it eating enough of the ammonia for hte bio load i want.
Also you could jsut wait and fishless cycle your new tank since it doesn't take very long(mine took 12 days with no seeded material added)
That's been my experience as well. Start seeding your filter in the small tank, but you'll definately have to cycle the large one again before adding fish. And it's a good idea to add some of the substrate in the small that you'll be using in the large tank to get it started, and don't let any of the material in the filter or the substrate dry out when changing over or you'll lose the benficial bacteria. The large tank will cycle very quickly this way.
Len
Len
Thank you everyone for the tips. I will transfer the filter I am using to fishless cycle the 10 gallon and complete the cycle for the 120 gallon using this filter.