Tank cycling question

[apastuszak]

I have a 55 gallon running now with an Aquaclear 300 and a Fluval 305. The plan is to move the Aquaclear to another tank so I can add fish right away.

Now my understanding is that the bacteria will only grow as much as the amount of available food.

If this is the case, I tend to think that when I remove the Aquaclear I should see a slight ammonia spike till the canister filter has a chance to grow some additional bacteria.

How long should this temporary spike last and hope high should the ammonia rise?

I've been at this since 1978 and this is the first time I've ever used cycled media from another tank, believe it or not.

Of course in '78 i was in 4th grade and didn't know a calm thing about the Nitrogen Cycle. The only thing that probably saved my fish was that I was too lazy to wash my carbon out when I changed my media in my corner bubble filter.

 

[AbbeysDad]

You don't mention how long the canister filter has been running or what kind of bio-load you have in the 55g.....so it would be unlikely anyone could predict the amount of ammonia and how long it would take beneficial bacteria colonies to increase to handle. On the up side, 55g does give you more time than a smaller tank would. If it was me, I'd 'wash' the AC filter media in the tank to get BB in the canister then I'd dose the tank volume with Prime which would give your beneficial bacteria 48 hours to increase and handle the ammonia neutralized by the Prime.

 

[apastuszak]

The 305 on the tank has been running for about 3 years. The tank is lightly stocked:

1. 1 giant adult angelfish
2. 2 Flying foxes
3. 5 neon tertas
4. 1 betta

 

[Rbishop]

with adequate food supply the bacteria will basically double daily seems to be the standard thought. There is no accurate way to know how the bacteria is split between the two filters on the tank they are on now. Much will depend how much load you are adding to the new tank the aqua clear is going on.

 

[apastuszak]

Well then, it sounds like I have nothing to worry about. If I get all my errands done, and get all those diatoms vacuumed up, then I may need to do some fish shopping.