Cycling my 5 gallon aquascene tank

[wolfrad]

I have a 5 gallon aquascene top fin tank that I got from Petsmart which has a female betta in it. I was wanting to cycle the tank with the small hang on 3i filter that came with it so that I will be able to do more with it. I have 1 already cycled it's been set up since middle of December and doing great, it has a single female platy and a baby or 2 hiding in the silk plants. Can I use the media from the cycled tanks filter and cycle my new tank with it, and if I do would there be enough bacteria in the rock of the cycled tank to keep it cycled? I'm wanting to put some pool filter sand in the other tank as the substance and maybe a few of the pea gravel from the cycled tank as well as the filter media to get a jump start on the cycle process. It gets a little tiring when you have to do 100% tank change every 5-6 days, any suggestions would be great. Also do cory's or ghost shrimp bother baby fish, I was told to hold off on it tell the baby got bigger?

 

[theotheragentm]

Wow, that was a lot of information in one paragraph. You can use your old filter media to seed your new filter, but you still need to have something filtering your original tank. The substrate can be used to help seed a new tank as well. I would take a handful of the old substrate if you can to help seed the new tank. If you're not wanting that type of substrate in your new tank, toss it in a stocking so you can collect it out easily.

 

[theotheragentm]

I forgot to add that I have Cories and Ghost Shrimp and they do not seem to bother the fry in my tank at all. They are opportunistic and may feed on the fry if they do die, but it is unlikely that they pose a true threat to your fry if they are healthy.