Cycle questions

[Kornchild]

I am looking at setting up 2 new tanks a 45 gallon and a 20 gallon, I currently have a 10 gallon tank that has been going for 3 years. Problem is it has no fish, all it has is african clawed frogs which are extremely messy I may add. My question is, can I use some water and some rub the filters on the new tanks to help speed up the cycle process also what type of ETA would I be looking at before I could fully stock the two new tanks.....

 

[trenac]

I would not use the water but you can soak the new filter in the established tank for two weeks then put into your new tanks. At the same time I would add some starter fish like Danios to help cycle. Then test the water daily for ammonia & nitrite to see when the spike are over with. Then you can start adding the fish you want to keep slowly, 2-3 a week depending on size.

 

[deli_conker]

I just posted about a fishless cycle I did. You may want to take a look at it...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=26312

 

[Menagerie]

[center:03c7573dbe] Welcome to AA, Kornchild! [/center:03c7573dbe]

I don't recommend using "starter fish" to cycle a tank with because if you do not want the fish in the long run, what are you going to do with them? Either use media from an established tank and ammonia, or start from nothing with just ammonia. Using established media, your tanks could be cycled in days (my only concern is your using a small filter to start to larger tanks--there may not be enough bacteria for everything). Starting from nothing will take 6-8 weeks.

 

[trenac]

I take my starter fish back to the LFS.