Cycling a small 15g tank

[howmanyds]

I cleaned up an old 15g turtle tank to use as my cichlid fry tank / shell-dweller tank.

I have an internal filter rated for 40 gallons with bio balls, carbon, and floss. I think I might take out the carbon and put in a sac of purigen.

In order to cycle faster, I'll take the purigen bag out of my cycled 75g tank. Should I rinse it first before using it or would that kill any bacteria living in the stuff?

For a tank housing such a small amount of small fish, I'm cycling it to 2 ppm of ammonia. Is that enough? Too much?

 

[mikem691]

If you snag some bio media from the 75 you may be able to instant cycle the tank. I would just swish it lightly in tank water then dose to 2ppm and check in 24 hours and see if the ammonia is gone. repeat 1 more time and if its gone you are most likely good to go.

 

[howmanyds]

The bio balls came from the 75, but not very many fit in the small internal filter. I'm hoping the purigen will help out a lot. Is purigen bio media?

 

[howmanyds]

So, with the bio balls and about a cup of seachem matrix from the old filter, the new tank is still not cycled. In fact, it looks like not one bit of ammonia is gone and there are 0 nitrites or nitrates.

Could the bacteria on these things have died from being in the air for a few minutes? How about when going into the colder 15g tank water? (It's up to 80° now though).

 

[mikem691]

So, with the bio balls and about a cup of seachem matrix from the old filter, the new tank is still not cycled. In fact, it looks like not one bit of ammonia is gone and there are 0 nitrites or nitrates.

Could the bacteria on these things have died from being in the air for a few minutes? How about when going into the colder 15g tank water? (It's up to 80° now though).

Thats strange Im not sure if temp shock would kill off the BB. As long as the bb did not dry out transferring it should not have hurt it. I always have extra filters running and have never had a problem moving a filter to a new tank. Its always instantly cycled for me but temps and ph were always the same.