One last filter question

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AquaJoe

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
245
Location
Alberta, Canada
Hello all;

As some of you know, I am awaiting the arrival of my new AquaClear 500. One major concern to me is how exactly I plan to commission this new filter. The last time I purchased a new filter I simply ran it along side an established filter in one of my aquariums. The current problem is that I do not have enough room to do that again. One aquarium has two filters in it already and the other has a canopy closing off as many potential escape routs for my loaches as possible!

I am wondering if there would be enough bacteria already in the substrate of my 30 gallon tank to support a new filter. I was thinking maybe I would just swap the AC70 out for the AC500.

Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Joe
 
I've heard of people washing their old filters off into the new filter. I tried it and my cycle was rather short (maybe 3 weeks) with 4 fish.
 
If you take the carbon out of the AC 500, you could probably fit the sponge from the AC 70 into it.
 
If your tanks are well established, you can take some media out of one or 2 of the other filters and put it in the new filter. Just make sure you don't take all of it from the established filters.
 
Occupants:

30 gallon tank

-2 ID sharks
-2 weather loaches

20 gallon tank

-3 bala sharks
-1 pleco

All of my filters have the following media:

-bio-balls
-sponge(s)
-ammocarb and/or biomax

I am thinking that I can take one of the two sponges out of the AC70 and bio-balls out of all of the filters and then put it all into the AC500 with some additional 'fresh' media. If I was to do that, do you think it would be safe to run it solo on my 30 gallon tank? The aquarium has been established for roughly 3-4 months.

Cheers,
Joe
 
I run my aquaclears with 2 sponges. no carbon, no ammorid. If you had 2 sponges in the old one you could move it to the new one to start it.
 
You said you had 2 filters on one of your tanks. Why not run the 500 on that tank in place of one of the existing filters, and using the displaced filter on the new tank? That would seem to be the best of both worlds to me - the new tank would get a fully established filter, and the 500 would be in a fully cycled tank. After a couple of weeks you could probably swap them with no ill effects.
 
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