I hate cycling. Some ideas and questions.

[Crazyhermitcrab]

MY QUESTION, HOW LONG SHOULD I SEED MY FILTER MEDIA?

Hello.
I have 3 tanks.
My 10 gallon cycled,
36 gallon cycled,
10 gallon cycling.

I had a 5 gallon cycled. I bought the 10 gallon on Sunday. I set it up and added my betta and filter. It's heavily planted with hornworts.
My 5 gallon filter is the tetra whisper, internal filter for 3 gallons.
My new filter is aqueon Quietflow 10. For up to 20 gallons.
I allowed the filters to run beside each other for a few hours, before I moved the old filters media into the new media.

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

Earlier today I bought API quick start, I double dosed and added It to the tank.

Ammonia: 0.15ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

The ammonia is going downl but nothing is rising.

I just moved the filter pad from the 10 gallon to the 36 gallon to try to seed it, hoe long should I leave it in the main tank?

 

[jglover]

I'm think it will take a few weeks or so for the new filter to develop enough bacteria to be seeded for a 10 gallon tank. It's same process as growing a bacteria colony on a new filter, it's just you have some seed to help it along. The bacteria will not really grow any faster on the new filter, you just have a large source of bacteria in your old filter.

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Cycling

Hello Craz...

You can instantly cycle the 10 G by removing some of the used filter media from the larger tank and putting it into the 10. Good bacteria makes a home on any surface inside the tank, so there's plenty in the larger tank even if a small portion of the filter media is removed. Just replace the filter media you removed from the large tank with new that's been rinsed in some of your treated water you use for water changes. The bacteria in the larger tank will reproduce to the former level in a few hours.

B