Cycling Q, filter media...

[ceekay]

My friend has an extremely well-established (a few years old, two HUGE goldfish - probably 1.5lb fish) tank, and is willing to donate bacteria to me for fishless cycling purposes, but I don't know if he wants me cutting up his current filter... Would it be sufficient to just get a bunch of good filter gunk in some neutral/safe water and dump it into the pump box (HOB filter)? I'm trying to follow this fishless cycling method, and it says to add filter media (I'm figuring it means bits and pieces of the filter). Not sure if it's a big difference in the long run or the cycling process if I just put filter gunk in the filter or if I put gunky filter pieces in the pump box. I get that the filter pieces would hold the gunk and provide a stable, slow release of bacterium into the tank...

I'm using the Tetra Easy Strips, and the water here is on the hard side (GH ppm @150), and I have no idea what it is, how to fix it, or to where I should be fixing it. Everything else is neutral/perfect... If I had any sort of native bacteria culture, I'd be adding fish.


Thanks as always!
- CK

 

[ImACoolguy]

You can use almost anything from his established filter to help your own.

Things that work:
Bio media(bio balls, ceramics, DIY, etc...)
Filter pads
Filter floss

All of these hold BB and adding one or more to your filter from his will help your cycle.


Caleb

 

[ceekay]

I'm actually tempted to just swap him filters if he runs the same cartridge I do...


- CK