Transfer biological media

[kansei]

When I set up the new tank can I fill a couple of media baskets in the Fluval 405 with gravel and the bio-filter material from my present tank as seed to speed along the set up. The 405 has 8 media baskets ( 4 with carbon and 4 bio-max now )

 

[Esra]

That's what i did.
I put the gravel in a stocking and the media from the old filter in one of the baskets.

No cycle at all, i was amazed!

And this was going from a 7.5 G to a 120G!

 

[kansei]

Good to hear I am going from 10 to 125

 

[Esra]

Just make sure you check everything with a good test kit before adding anything.

Add all your water first and use some prime to make sure there is no chloring.
I left the prime in there for 30 minutes before setting up the filter.
Then started that up.

Everything went fine.

I put the fish i had in my 7.5G straight in (once the water cleared a bit) and they had no problems at all.
No ammonia spikes or anything.

Just be careful cause mine might have been a fluke so make sure you check everything thoroughly.

 

[kansei]

I will do water checks , I was hoping at best a week before I put the fish in and adding a few weekly after that til I get a full population .

 

[Esra]

Yeah you should be fine with that scheduel as long as the tests support it.
Maybe add a raw prawn to the tank for the first week to give the bacteria something to chew on and grow?

Good idea to spread out the addition of new fish as much as you can.

Plus it prolongs the fun.