Instant cycling???

[Lindsey577]

Ok, question. I bought a 55g tank and I need to cycle it. I have a 10g tank with the 55g's filter on it and I'm going to move everything except the gravel to the 55g. (decorations,plants,fish,filter,heater) would this be enough stuff to instantly cycle my tank? Thanks

 

[tamtam]

How long has the filter been on it?

 

[Lindsey577]

About a month or so

 

[tamtam]

hmm, that's cutting it close.. with that much stuff it's hard to say. I want to say yes but I'm really not 100%. I imagine worst case maybe you'd go into a mini cycle.
Do you have another filter on the 10g? If you did and wanted to be extra careful maybe you could set up your new tank, put on the 55g filter and give it a day. Dose a bit with ammonia and see how fast in converts it.

Though I'd personally probably just switch everything over, set up the tank with fish and watch the prams for a few days. See if you have any spikes and handle it with PWC as needed. If your lucky it may all go smoothly

 

[RussellC]

I agree with tamtam.

A month is close call. One option is to leave everything as is for another week or two.

But were it me? I'll be honest. I'd be itching to upgrade to that 55 gallon!

Like tamtam, I'd move everyone and everything over at the one month mark -- if the filter isn't fully seeded, it should be close.

I'd also be armed with my test kit, siphon, and my bottle of Prime just in case I got a mini-cycle.

But you may not have any issues at all.

Good luck!

 

[librarygirl]

A month should be a good amount of time IMO, especially from a 10 gal upgrade to a 55 (bioload shouldn't bee too large I'm guessing). Plus if you have a filter for the 10 gal already, move the media from the 10 gal into the 55's filter and it should be cycled (or run the 10 gals filter on the 55 for a while). You should have enough bacteria to sustain the bioload in the 10 gal. I'd move everything over and test for at least two weeks; if everything stays level, you can start adding fish but slowly as the increase in ammonia will cause the bacteria to re-adjust and you might have some fluctuations from the new fish, but the ones you have now should be fine.