We are VERY new to aquariums. We set up a basic 10g set this past summer as the kids wanted fish…and brought a couple guppies and a snail home from school. Our success has been mediocre at best, but we have learned a lot…and I've decided that I'd like to pursue this will a bit more knowledge.
I have recently purchased a second aquarium, this one a 20g. I have 3 zebra dianos and some live plants in there--and the tank is cycling. All the rest of the fish, including some newer purchases, are still housed in the 10g tank which will end up being our quarantine (pregnant guppy) tank. The 10g starter tank just has artificial plants whereas the new tank has live plants (I have done my research wrt to lighting and plant nutrients, thanks to this site).
I have been VERY careful NOT to transfer any items (esp gravel and plants) from the old tank to the new, as the snail population has exploded in the old tank and there are tiny snails all over everything. My goals with the new tank are:
1. to have a larger tank with greater fish selection available
2. to have live plants rather than artificial
3. to create a quarantine/birthing tank by using our 10g
4. to keep all snails out of the new tank!
Everything is going just fine so far. However, I have wondered if I might help along the cycling of my new tank by switching filter cartridges between the two tanks. They both have the EXACT same filter with the same size cartridge, so an exchange would be easy. My hope is that some of the beneficial bacteria from the old tank would transfer to the new and help things out. I know just from looking at the dirty filter on the 10g tank that a bunch of the tiny snails have been washed up in the filter--which I presume is doing it's job of catching them and not putting them back into the tank, right? So basically I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to switch filter cartridges to get some of the good bacteria from the old tank into the new tank, or if even the introduction of a filter cartridge could add snails to the new tank. Is this worth the risk? Esp since I have live plants in the new tank? Or do I just proceed with the slow process of fish-in cycling that is already going on?
I have recently purchased a second aquarium, this one a 20g. I have 3 zebra dianos and some live plants in there--and the tank is cycling. All the rest of the fish, including some newer purchases, are still housed in the 10g tank which will end up being our quarantine (pregnant guppy) tank. The 10g starter tank just has artificial plants whereas the new tank has live plants (I have done my research wrt to lighting and plant nutrients, thanks to this site).
I have been VERY careful NOT to transfer any items (esp gravel and plants) from the old tank to the new, as the snail population has exploded in the old tank and there are tiny snails all over everything. My goals with the new tank are:
1. to have a larger tank with greater fish selection available
2. to have live plants rather than artificial
3. to create a quarantine/birthing tank by using our 10g
4. to keep all snails out of the new tank!
Everything is going just fine so far. However, I have wondered if I might help along the cycling of my new tank by switching filter cartridges between the two tanks. They both have the EXACT same filter with the same size cartridge, so an exchange would be easy. My hope is that some of the beneficial bacteria from the old tank would transfer to the new and help things out. I know just from looking at the dirty filter on the 10g tank that a bunch of the tiny snails have been washed up in the filter--which I presume is doing it's job of catching them and not putting them back into the tank, right? So basically I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to switch filter cartridges to get some of the good bacteria from the old tank into the new tank, or if even the introduction of a filter cartridge could add snails to the new tank. Is this worth the risk? Esp since I have live plants in the new tank? Or do I just proceed with the slow process of fish-in cycling that is already going on?
