speeding cycle process

[booginish]

i have a 10 gallon tank established for almost a year now with 10 comet goldfish(know its overstock but they are very strong fish for some reason), i put them in my pond for the summer(they love it), but ya if yall want a pic il post one of the 10 gallon . but ya back to my question, i have a 55 gallon i just recently started cycling a month ago probly more, and i wanted to know since i obviously have a strong amount of bacterium in my 10 gallon is there any way to transfer that to my other tank(55 gal) to complete my cycle faster? im not sure how to go about it or if you can even do such a thing. i have never had any sickness in my 10 gall with my goldfish, and all levels are at 0 besides nitrates which are always a little elevated(normal with that many fish in the tank).

 

[booginish]

i was bit unclear, when i say transfer i dont mean the fish i mean the bacteria established in the tank.

 

[gzeiger]

Yes, it is possible, even easy to do. However if you haven't had fish in the 10-gallon tank all summer you don't still have bacteria in it (they starved to death long ago). Are the goldfish back in the tank now?

How to transfer the bacteria depends on the type of filter you have on each tank. If you have a hang-on-back filter with a replaceable filter cartridge, just take it out of the 10-gallon filter and put it in the bigger filter on the 55. It should hold the new cartridge it came with as well as the old smaller one, and over time the bacteria will spread themselves out to all available surfaces.

Alternatively, and for any other filter type, the easiest thing to do is just move the old filter over to the new tank and run both filters side by side. If you do that you should be able to add the fish to the new tank immediately since the old filter is already adjusted to their bioload and able to handle all their waste, so you won't need to worry about having the old tank without a filter. After a month or so the new filter would be established and you could take the smaller one out and have your old tank back too.

If you want to operate the 10-gallon continuously and still wait on a speeded-up cycle in the big tank, you can take out the filter pad or sponge and squeeze or rub it onto the new filter pad to move some bacteria, then replace it in the filter. That will speed up the process considerably.

 

[booginish]

yea i have had my goldfish in the 10 gallon since august 15, so its well established and you can tell from my readings(0 ammonia 0 nitrite, and low nitrate controlled with pwc's). i dont want to move my filter off my ten gallon and if i decide to put the filter from my ten gallon in my 55 gallon, your sdaying i should be able to fit the 10 gal filter in my 55 gallon filter without removing any of those filter in my 55 gallon filter? cause thats totally possible and i like that idea the most, my 55 gallon has bin cycling for about a month now(probly longer, 0 ammonia, and .5 readings of nitrite), i just want to complete the process very fast. i like the idea of rubbing the 10 gal filter against my 55 gallon filter but u were kinda unclear when u said replace, so i would have to replace my 10 gallon filter after? cause if thats the case i like the idea of just putting it in my 55 gallon. thanks for the response

 

[booginish]

august 15 /08

 

[mike47517]

Swap the media and you can also do large PWCs and put the water from your 10g to the 55g those will both help speed up the process.

 

[gzeiger]

I'm still not sure what kind of filter you have. I'm assuming it's a hang-on-back with replaceable cartridge (usually filter floss with carbon inside). When I say replaceable I mean there's a white cloth sort of insert that can be removed from the pump housing. Most likely the filter on the 10-gallon isn't the same size as the one on the 55, so you can't just swap the media, but the smaller pad should fit in the big filter along with the bigger pad and bacteria will transfer from it over time. "Media" and "cartridge" are interchangeable terms and just refer to the insert that actually does the filtration.

Are you still adding ammonia to the 55? If you don't have fish in it yet you need to still be adding ammonia at least daily or your filter will starve and die.

 

[Dano01]

One note: The beneficial bacteria in a tank live on surfaces..........There will be few in the water column, so using water from an established tank will make little significant difference..............A hand full of gravel and or used filter material from an established tank is the way to go..........Then patients to let things happen!

 

[buddha_red]

Good advice Dano! Couldn't have said it any better. Nothing great happens fast in an aquarium.

 

[booginish]

ya both my filters are hang off the back so i just took the filter out of my ten gal and put it inside my 55 gallon hang off the back filter with out removing the filter from the 55 gallon so its just kind of hovering around my 55 gallons filter

 

[booginish]

should i still be doin pwcs with a nitrite of .5?

 

[booginish]

i can alrdy see the diference in fish activity since yesterday. there so happy which makes me so happy, i hate seeing my fish gloomy and angry at me and not eating, they go crazy when they see me, i love them

 

[booginish]

my above question is still pending

 

[jim692]

should i still be doin pwcs with a nitrite of .5?

If you are fishless cycling there is no need to do a pwc. If you have fish in the tank then most people will say to do a 50% pwc at the .50 level for ammonia or nitrites. From reading your thread I thought you were cycling fishless. If so keep dosing ammonia to the tank to the 2-4 ppm level to keep the bacteria happy and active. Don't want to starve the little guys.