Quick cycling question

Lgw · Jun 9, 2013

If I was take 1 tray of bio media out of one of my canisters on the established 7ft (running 2 canisters, 1 bio an
d 1 mechanical) and put it in my new sump (with new media) for my new tanks, would that be enough to seed my new media? And if so how long should I leave it in there for? The sump will be running 6 tanks roughly 30 gal each.

aclockworkorange · Jun 9, 2013

Would definitely help, might have a mini cycle while everything catches up. I would do it and just monitor the water params.

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Lgw · Jun 9, 2013

I guess I could just mix up the canisters to half bio half mech. and use one canister on the new tanks until the sump is seeded. Approximately how long should I leave it on there for?

Drstrangelove · Jun 9, 2013

Your posts imply that you mean to move the media into the sump and then remove it.

I can't see that there is no way to answer this question. BB are sessile colonies (they expand to adjacent media), so your question is: how long will it take for BB (sessile organisms) on my original media to colonize the new sump to the point that the original media can be removed.

Your best bet is to place the new media adjacent to the media in the sump (and upstream in the water flow), to over feed the requirements of the BB that you transfer into the sump so that they can expand their population, hope that they expand onto the sump media, then remove the original media, then test the parameters to see how much was established in the sump.

Aquanero · Jun 9, 2013

It will help for sure. There is know way of knowing how long it will take to for the entire system to cycle (considerably less time than witout it). The media from the canaster will seed the sump but only testing the water will tell you when it's finished cycling. HTH

FireGills · Jun 10, 2013

I actually just did this. In my old 60 gallon I had a fluval 406. My new 180 has 2x fluval FX6 filters. I took the bio media from the 406 and split it 1/2 and 1/2 into the new trays to seed the new media. Right now I have a mini cycle but its improving drastically daily.