Newbie here, need advice seeding

[Phantomflier]

Hello all, I am new to all this. First of all, great site!! Lot's of great stuff here. I have a 29 gal fresh that I am cycling. (set it up last night) I am doing a fishless cycle as recommended by eco23. The question I have is- can I use something from an established gold fish tank to use as seeding material to get the beneficial bacteria going? It's a 2 gal tank with two very small simple GF (not fancy) that has been going for several months. It 'appears' healthy. But how do I know? Water tests show Ammo almost zero, nitrites 0, and nitrAtes bet 20-30 ppm. Is there something else I can test to know it's a healthy tank, or should I avoid using stuff from this tank altogether, ask for something from lfs (how do I know THAT'S healthy?) , or just take the slower road to my new tank? Thanks so much.

 

[FishyBusiness]

If all the levels are good I would use some! It will definitely jump start it. When I set up my 90g cichlid tank it only took 2 weeks to cycle 4ppm with filter media from my 20g and a "live" filter I ordered online. Of course 4ppm is excessive but I had to fully stock my tank at once...

 

[Fishfur]

Seeding the new filter from the established one will cycle it in almost no time. There is no reason not to, unless the goldfish are sick or have parasites. If they are well and bug free, go right ahead. Speed things up immensely. I have managed to cycle a filter in two days this way.

If you also clean the goldfish filter, and then pour the rinsings into the new filter it will help even more. It will mess up the filter a bit, but you'll clean that out when it's needed. Meantime, virtually all the BB that got knocked loose from the old filter during cleaning, will take up residence in the new one.