Using gravel from small goldfish tank to seed 20g tank? safe or not?

[epjan7]

I have a 20 gallon tank set up 5 weeks ago.

It has not yet cycled (prob because of coral which brough ph up to 8.8 or more it was off the scale. I removed it yesterday and tested today and its at 8.0)
The levels are 4ppm ammonia and 0 for both nitrites and nitrates. Water temp is 84°F.*I am doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia from dr. Tim.

I was just wondering if, to speed up the cycle, its okay to take a little bit of gravel from the goldfish tank and put it in a nylon or something and put it in my tank?

The goldfish is in a VERY small tank, way under a half gallon. Its a small but surprisingly healthy fish. I disapprove of this... but it's my sisters. She won it at a festival last September and wasnt expecting it to live more than a week. Its now almost been a year and its happy... I think... it's always swimming around never distressed. When she changes the water she doesnt add conditioner... I know... wrong... but the levels seem fine. *

So I've been looking at ways to seed my tank and thought why not the goldfish? So for the hell of it I took a test with my API master test kit.(Of the small,unfiltered goldfish tank)--
Ammonia was about .25ppm, nitrites think were 0 i think and nitrates were either 10 or 20ppm. Does this seem like an adequate way of seeding my tank? BY using some gravel and hanging it in my 20g tank with nylon? Im not a fish expert but it looks very vibrant and healthy and not sick. Or is this somehow dangerous? Its been 5 weeks and I need some established media in there!! Is good bacteria good bacteria regardless?
My tank is a 20g freshwater tank. With a fluval c3 filter (just installed) along with a aqueon quietflow 10.(2 filters running at once because the aqueon sucks!)

thank you!!!

 

[herp_mommy]

At five weeks you should be near completion of your cycle. You're either not dosing enough ammonia or doing too many water changes. Most bacteria lies in the filter. There could be a small amount in the gravel, but it will mostly continue to grow on the gravel unless you place it next to the new filter.

 

[epjan7]

At five weeks you should be near completion of your cycle. You're either not dosing enough ammonia or doing too many water changes. Most bacteria lies in the filter. There could be a small amount in the gravel, but it will mostly continue to grow on the gravel unless you place it next to the new filter.

I dont know why my tank isn't cycling. Im a little confused. It has been 5 weeks BUT
for the first two weeks I tried fish. The highest the ammonia got was 1ppm. I heard thats not enough to spike the nitrites. So they all died unfortunately and then for another 2 weeks I did a fishless cycle with fish food. Again the ammonia only got to 1ppm and the nitrates and nitrites stayed at 0. This made a mess too!! So for the past 7 days I've been using pure ammonia. But I only dosed it once last week got it to like what looked like more than 4ppm so I did a 20% water change and ammonias been at like 2-4ppm the past week. Cant tell for sure. Both nitrites and nitrates are still 0. Am I supposed to add the ammonia every day even if it stays at 4ppm?? So confused.

And if I take gravel from my goldfish tank to my 20g tank where should I put it to speed up the process? Or are goldfish too dirty?

 

[herp_mommy]

I dont know why my tank isn't cycling. Im a little confused. It has been 5 weeks BUT
for the first two weeks I tried fish. The highest the ammonia got was 1ppm. I heard thats not enough to spike the nitrites. So they all died unfortunately and then for another 2 weeks I did a fishless cycle with fish food. Again the ammonia only got to 1ppm and the nitrates and nitrites stayed at 0. This made a mess too!! So for the past 7 days I've been using pure ammonia. But I only dosed it once last week got it to like what looked like more than 4ppm so I did a 20% water change and ammonias been at like 2-4ppm the past week. Cant tell for sure. Both nitrites and nitrates are still 0. Am I supposed to add the ammonia every day even if it stays at 4ppm?? So confused.

And if I take gravel from my goldfish tank to my 20g tank where should I put it to speed up the process? Or are goldfish too dirty?

Your ammonia isn't climbing because you're taking it out of the tank by doing water changes. Wait until your cycle is complete, then do a major water change to bring down the nitrates.

 

[epjan7]

Your ammonia isn't climbing because you're taking it out of the tank by doing water changes. Wait until your cycle is complete, then do a major water change to bring down the nitrates.

Okay but I get different answers everywhere. I just added some more ammonia to my tank and its at 4ppm. Should I just keep it there till it drops? Or should I add a few more drops everyday? (I thought more than 5ppm will kill bacteria)

 

[herp_mommy]

Okay but I get different answers everywhere. I just added some more ammonia to my tank and its at 4ppm. Should I just keep it there till it drops? Or should I add a few more drops everyday? (I thought more than 5ppm will kill bacteria)

I let mine climb to 8ppm, by then it will start to covert into nitrite. I've always used the raw shrimp method by the way. You need a significant amount and continuous source for the bacteria to start feeding, and then converting.