When its time to cycle my 55g...

[Mrs.h2012]

I still have to clean it out which I will do tomorrow and we have to find some sort of stand or table to put it on, but once it comes time to set it up and begin cycling it (I WILL be doing a fishless cycle this time around, I know I wont have the time to do daily WC's on this tank like i did with my 10g) what would be the best way to help seed it with my (hopefully by then) cycled 10g? Should I run the 10g filter in the 55g (I plan on getting a filter that filters for more than 55g)? I'm not sure I will be able to run the filter I get for my 55g in my 10g because of how my hood is for my 10g.

 

[bud29]

I would say take a few handfuls of substrate from your 10 and put it in your 55. I don't think you want to run your 10g filter on your 55 for 2 reasons.:

1. All the bb on your filter will be transferred to the 55, leaving your 10 with much less.
2. The bb you build by cycling your 55 will colonize on the 10 gallon filter, and then would leave with the 10 gallon filter.

By putting some substrate from the 10g in the 55 you still seed the tank pretty well but you don't lose as much bb as you would by running the whole filter on the other tank.

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I would say take a few handfuls of substrate from your 10 and put it in your 55. I don't think you want to run your 10g filter on your 55 for 2 reasons.:

1. All the bb on your filter will be transferred to the 55, leaving your 10 with much less.
2. The bb you build by cycling your 55 will colonize on the 10 gallon filter, and then would leave with the 10 gallon filter.

By putting some substrate from the 10g in the 55 you still seed the tank pretty well but you don't lose as much bb as you would by running the whole filter on the other tank.

Would adding a fake plant or two from my 10g also help? I've got a good many in my 10g and taking a plant or two out shouldn't make much of a difference in the 10g should it? Also I'm planning on doing sand in the 55 instead of gravel, so could I just put a few handfuls of gravel in a mesh bag and hang in the 55? Would that work?

 

[Borderlesscott]

The more you can put in the 55 the better, however you don't want to push the 10 into a mini cycle by removing to much. A good handful or two of gravel from the 10 should be fine, place in a media bag and drop it in the 55, I usually leave it close to the intake of my new filter and suspended an inch of the bottom to let a good flow of water around it.

 

[Dreadz]

What filter media do you have in your 10g filter? Take some of that media and transfer it into your new filter. You won't need much to seed your new 55g filter and speed up the process.

 

[librarygirl]

The 10 gal has fish right? You don't want to remove the 10 gal's filter all together if there are fish in there. Also running the 55's filter on the 10 will only seed it as far as the stock you have in the 10, so it wouldn't be able to hold a 55 gal full of fish. You could grab some substrate from the 10 and put it in a mesh bag and put it in the 55's filter or right under the intake. You could also grab a small portion of the filter media from the 10 and add it to the 55; just watch the 10 gal for a mini cycle. Since that cycle just completed you don't want to mess with it too much.

Edited: you might want to consider buying a seeded (active) sponge filter from Angels Plus for the 55; that would probably help the most. http://www.angelsplus.com/FiltersSponge.htm

 

[Mrs.h2012]

The 10 gal has fish right? You don't want to remove the 10 gal's filter all together if there are fish in there. Also running the 55's filter on the 10 will only seed it as far as the stock you have in the 10, so it wouldn't be able to hold a 55 gal full of fish. You could grab some substrate from the 10 and put it in a mesh bag and put it in the 55's filter or right under the intake. You could also grab a small portion of the filter media from the 10 and add it to the 55; just watch the 10 gal for a mini cycle. Since that cycle just completed you don't want to mess with it too much.

Edited: you might want to consider buying a seeded (active) sponge filter from Angels Plus for the 55; that would probably help the most. http://www.angelsplus.com/FiltersSponge.htm

Yes my 10 has two platies and some platy fry (not sure exactly how many, most I've seen at once is 5). I've actually been running two cartridges in my 10 fully intending to change one out after the new one ran with old for a week or two because my old one was getting really gunky and nasty looking And I completely forgot about it being in there until now and that was about 3 weeks ago.