Hey guys;
I'm finally setting up my new 72 gallon! I've installed a new HOB 30g Whisper filter on the back of my 29g so that the filter can get cycled and I can install it on the 72 gallon.
--How long does it take for a new filter to get colonized with the beneficial bacteria?
--I also have a new 60g Whisper HOB on the 72 gal. Will the cycled 30g whisper be enough to get the other filter cycled on the 72 gallon?
Thanks!
Jamie
cycling a new filter
Moderator: LoachForumModerators
You need to think about how much food the beneficial bacteria are getting.
Running a filter on an established tank for several weeks to a month will grow a good starter colony of bacteria, but will become part of the bio-filter of the tank you are running it on. So much so that when you remove the 'new' filter, you are removing a lot of the bacteria that tank has come to depend on.
This method works for keeping a Q-tank filter cycled, because usually the Q-tank filter represents maybe 1/4 of the bacteria in all the filters on the main tank. When you remove it to use it on a Q-tank, you are only removing a small % of the nitrifying bacteria.
Running a pretty big filter on a small tank will grow only as big a bacteria population as there are fish in that tank, and the population will be split among however many filters there are on that tank.
Lets pretend that nitrifying bacteria are marbles.
On your current tank the fish require 100 marbles to keep the ammonia and nitrite under control.
Before adding a new filter 50 marbles are in the current filter, and 50 marbles are all over the tank, on the substrate, on the decorations...
Now, add a large filter.
The bacteria (oops, marble) population will spread out to occupy the new filter, but there are still only enough fish to support 100 marbles.
Old filter: 40 marbles
Substrate etc.: 40 marbles
New filter: 20 marbles. (If you left the filter on this tank longer this population might get bigger)
Now you take away the new filter to start a new tank, but you do not remove any of the fish. The old tank may go through a minicycle as the marbles must now re-grow to 100.
In the mean time you have put the filter with 20 marbles on a significantly larger tank, but how much ammonia is there to feed the marbles? The volume of water does not matter at all.
You also add another filter, and want marbles to colonize it.
The new tank may have a fish-capacity of twice the smaller tank, so you need to grow 200 marbles to fully cycle this tank. It does not matter where the marbles live: starter filter, new filter, substrate or wherever, the raw fact is you have a small marble population (20), and want a bigger population (200).
Sure, the seeded filter is a good source of marbles to jump start the new tank, but I would go with the fishless cycle to fully cycle the new tank, utilizing the beneficial bacteria from your smaller tank as a starter colony, but recognizing that it is just a drop in the bucket.
Get the big tank set up and running, then move the cycled starter filter over. Add to the big tank enough ammonia to bring the ammonia reading to 5 ppm, and add enough ammonia daily to keep the reading there for a few days. (The ammonia is plain, ordinary cleaning product. No perfumes, dyes or surfactants)
Test for nitrite. When you see nitrite allow the ammonia to come down to 3 ppm, and maintain it there until the fishless cycle is done.
Test for nitrites and do water changes if the nitrites get over 5 ppm (This becomes toxic to the bacteria). Follow the population of bacteria growing by watching the nitrite spike, then shrink.
A cycled tank will show the following test results:
When you add ammonia to feed the bacteria you can make it read 3 ppm, but the bacteria begin removing the ammonia and in a few hours, less than a day, they will have removed all the ammonia. Ammonia will read 0 ppm by the next day.
They are, of course, turning it into nitrite. But the nitrite removing bacteria have grown to such a big population that you will not see any nitrite on a test.
The nitrate is rising, and may get surprisingly high during a fishless cycle.
To stock the tank do as big a water change as needed, or even 2 water changes of 90+% to get the nitrate as low as possible.
You can fully stock the new tank. The fishless cycle grows so much bacteria that there is no problem with adding a full fish load once the cycle is done. (You have grown way over 200 marbles worth of bacteria with the fishless cycle)
Running a filter on an established tank for several weeks to a month will grow a good starter colony of bacteria, but will become part of the bio-filter of the tank you are running it on. So much so that when you remove the 'new' filter, you are removing a lot of the bacteria that tank has come to depend on.
This method works for keeping a Q-tank filter cycled, because usually the Q-tank filter represents maybe 1/4 of the bacteria in all the filters on the main tank. When you remove it to use it on a Q-tank, you are only removing a small % of the nitrifying bacteria.
Running a pretty big filter on a small tank will grow only as big a bacteria population as there are fish in that tank, and the population will be split among however many filters there are on that tank.
Lets pretend that nitrifying bacteria are marbles.
On your current tank the fish require 100 marbles to keep the ammonia and nitrite under control.
Before adding a new filter 50 marbles are in the current filter, and 50 marbles are all over the tank, on the substrate, on the decorations...
Now, add a large filter.
The bacteria (oops, marble) population will spread out to occupy the new filter, but there are still only enough fish to support 100 marbles.
Old filter: 40 marbles
Substrate etc.: 40 marbles
New filter: 20 marbles. (If you left the filter on this tank longer this population might get bigger)
Now you take away the new filter to start a new tank, but you do not remove any of the fish. The old tank may go through a minicycle as the marbles must now re-grow to 100.
In the mean time you have put the filter with 20 marbles on a significantly larger tank, but how much ammonia is there to feed the marbles? The volume of water does not matter at all.
You also add another filter, and want marbles to colonize it.
The new tank may have a fish-capacity of twice the smaller tank, so you need to grow 200 marbles to fully cycle this tank. It does not matter where the marbles live: starter filter, new filter, substrate or wherever, the raw fact is you have a small marble population (20), and want a bigger population (200).
Sure, the seeded filter is a good source of marbles to jump start the new tank, but I would go with the fishless cycle to fully cycle the new tank, utilizing the beneficial bacteria from your smaller tank as a starter colony, but recognizing that it is just a drop in the bucket.
Get the big tank set up and running, then move the cycled starter filter over. Add to the big tank enough ammonia to bring the ammonia reading to 5 ppm, and add enough ammonia daily to keep the reading there for a few days. (The ammonia is plain, ordinary cleaning product. No perfumes, dyes or surfactants)
Test for nitrite. When you see nitrite allow the ammonia to come down to 3 ppm, and maintain it there until the fishless cycle is done.
Test for nitrites and do water changes if the nitrites get over 5 ppm (This becomes toxic to the bacteria). Follow the population of bacteria growing by watching the nitrite spike, then shrink.
A cycled tank will show the following test results:
When you add ammonia to feed the bacteria you can make it read 3 ppm, but the bacteria begin removing the ammonia and in a few hours, less than a day, they will have removed all the ammonia. Ammonia will read 0 ppm by the next day.
They are, of course, turning it into nitrite. But the nitrite removing bacteria have grown to such a big population that you will not see any nitrite on a test.
The nitrate is rising, and may get surprisingly high during a fishless cycle.
To stock the tank do as big a water change as needed, or even 2 water changes of 90+% to get the nitrate as low as possible.
You can fully stock the new tank. The fishless cycle grows so much bacteria that there is no problem with adding a full fish load once the cycle is done. (You have grown way over 200 marbles worth of bacteria with the fishless cycle)
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
Happy fish keeping!
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