Coleallensmom
Planted Tank Enthusiast
I bought two new 20 gals yesterday. One was a CL buy and one I picked up at Petco's $1/gallon sale. One is for me and and one for my son for his birthday.
On my current tank (37 gal) I run an Aquaclear 50 and a Aquatech 15; the 15 being a ready backup filter for a small QT. Petsmart has their filters on sale, so I picked up an Aquaclear 70 which is what I had originally intended to buy when I had set up the 37gal (they were out of stock at the time). The craigslist tank is going to my son and came with a HOB Whisper filter which I was thinking of stuffing with some filter media (it's pretty wide) instead of buying cartridges for it and/or just putting the already in use filter cartridge from the Aquatech 15 in there. My new 20 gallon currently is full of water with a heater running..I did put a little bit of gravel from the 37 in there when I landscaped last night.
Now talk me through switching filters for the two new tanks. What is the best way to go about doing it? I put the AC70 together last night and stuck it on my 37 gal. The end plan would be to put the Aquaclear 70 on the 37gal and the AC50 on the 20 gallon. (Not sure if I'll keep the Aquatech running after all of this or not.) I know when switching filters, it's best to just take the old media and put it into the new filter to prevent cycling, but in this case I need good bacteria in both Aquaclears. My first thought was to run them tandem on the 37 gal for a while (not sure how long?) and then switch the AC50 over to the 20 gal but was thinking it would most likely be better to just split the media from the AC50- put some in the AC70 and then switch the AC50 over to the 20 gallon right away.
I was running a bag of purigen (to clear tannins from my driftwood), a bag of bio max, and a sponge in the AC50. Last night when I set the AC70 up, I took the bag of purigen out of the AC50(replaced it with another sponge) and put it in the AC70 along with a new sponge and a new bag of biomax. The AC70 is large enough that there is still room for more media. If I took the old sponge out of the AC50 and added it in the AC70, would the bio max in the AC50 hold enough bacteria to keep my new 20 gal from completely cycling and will adding the old sponge to the AC70 and keeping the Aquatech running for a little while longer (As I said, I would like to use it to help cycle my son's new tank) keep the 37gal from taking a nose dive..or do I need to think up a new plan?
On my current tank (37 gal) I run an Aquaclear 50 and a Aquatech 15; the 15 being a ready backup filter for a small QT. Petsmart has their filters on sale, so I picked up an Aquaclear 70 which is what I had originally intended to buy when I had set up the 37gal (they were out of stock at the time). The craigslist tank is going to my son and came with a HOB Whisper filter which I was thinking of stuffing with some filter media (it's pretty wide) instead of buying cartridges for it and/or just putting the already in use filter cartridge from the Aquatech 15 in there. My new 20 gallon currently is full of water with a heater running..I did put a little bit of gravel from the 37 in there when I landscaped last night.
Now talk me through switching filters for the two new tanks. What is the best way to go about doing it? I put the AC70 together last night and stuck it on my 37 gal. The end plan would be to put the Aquaclear 70 on the 37gal and the AC50 on the 20 gallon. (Not sure if I'll keep the Aquatech running after all of this or not.) I know when switching filters, it's best to just take the old media and put it into the new filter to prevent cycling, but in this case I need good bacteria in both Aquaclears. My first thought was to run them tandem on the 37 gal for a while (not sure how long?) and then switch the AC50 over to the 20 gal but was thinking it would most likely be better to just split the media from the AC50- put some in the AC70 and then switch the AC50 over to the 20 gallon right away.
I was running a bag of purigen (to clear tannins from my driftwood), a bag of bio max, and a sponge in the AC50. Last night when I set the AC70 up, I took the bag of purigen out of the AC50(replaced it with another sponge) and put it in the AC70 along with a new sponge and a new bag of biomax. The AC70 is large enough that there is still room for more media. If I took the old sponge out of the AC50 and added it in the AC70, would the bio max in the AC50 hold enough bacteria to keep my new 20 gal from completely cycling and will adding the old sponge to the AC70 and keeping the Aquatech running for a little while longer (As I said, I would like to use it to help cycle my son's new tank) keep the 37gal from taking a nose dive..or do I need to think up a new plan?
