How long till I am ready for a fish???

[Doan]

Hey guys it's me agian and I have a quick question before I do something stupid... I have a 20 gallon I got over the weekend and I have the penguin filter bio wheel thing in one of the compartments of my fluval 404 so it can get all cycled. I put it in last saturday so it has been in there 10 days now. When do you guys think it would be safe to put it on the 20 and use for QT? It will be the only filtration biological or mechanical on the new tank but when I put all the pieces together I was also gonna use 10 gallons of old tank water with 10 of new just in case. How long till I can QT a fish??
Thanks

Doan

 

[Doan]

Ouch sorry the Fluval 404 is hooked up to my reef tank. I have just never cycled a biowheel all by it's lonesome. The reef tank has been up and running for about 6 months. I just wanna know cause as alot of you know I lost a whole lot of fish to ich and other accidents latley and will NEVER put another fish in my reef without a QT period. I am not dealing with fish problems in my reef ever again. But I am a little hazy on how long it will take for the biowheel to pick up enough bacteria that it will be safe to put fish in the QT tank. Sorry I didn't give all of the information.

Doan

 

[BillyZ]

if you have a decent bio load in your main tank I would say a week should be fine so with 10 days goin I'd say you're all set. I would, however, leave it there until you actually have the fish you're going to QT. Then take the media out and set up the filter when you put the fish in. This way the bacteria on the media doesn't die off before you get the fish in the QT. Make sure you have the QT tank set up and up to temp/SG/Ph before getting your fish as well. Best of luck, keep us up to date!