Bacteria questions, input needed

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BuffaloPolypteridae

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My buddy is trying to setup a new tank, and I know using some of the BB from an established tank is good to help the cycle get going but I had an idea and I'm looking for input on this plan

if I were to cut a piece of my sponge off (he has the same filter as me) and he gave me a clean piece of sponge back and put the all colonized up sponge piece in place of the piece he cut, will that be better for colonizing his tank? We use AC 70s, also would taking out some of the biomax pellet things too and putting them in help more? I know that's where most of the bacteria is living, and I don't want to throw my own tank into a mini cycle so before I try this I want as much input as I can get

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Oddball

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Using filter materialfrom a healthy established tan is a efficient way to cycle a new tank. Just ensure there's something for theBB to feed on immediately upon entering the new tank or the media population will die back quickly. Placing water from the established tank is a good start. Youcan also add a capful of standard pure (unscented) ammonia. Until the fish are introduced, remember to feed the tank a bit of fish food each day (or the ammonia) to keep the BB fed and in high numbers.
 
aldiaz33

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Yes, providing him with some media (whether it's a piece of sponge or bio-media) from your filter will help to "seed" his filter with bacteria.

Providing him with some substrate (sand or gravel) from your setup will also help jump-start his cycle.

As long as you give him just a small portion from your filter, you should not experience a mini cycle.
 
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skjl47

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Hello; You are on the right track. Your established/mature sponge will have beneficial bacteria (bb) on it's surfaces. many surfaces in your established tank will have the bb as well, not only the sponge. I doubt that you will crash your cycle even if you gave him the entire sponge as the bb will be on the other surfaces. The new clean sponge will be repopulated quickly and the colonies of bb on ther other surfaces in the tank will increase in population numbers to adjust to the difference.

You could give other solid materials from your tank.

Here is a link to an article that discusses most everything about aquarium cycles. It is a long read and I have added it to my favorites as a reference.


http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/nitrogen_cycle.html

Good luck
 
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BuffaloPolypteridae

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I've checked that article out before, but not so far in about jump starting tanks, thanks for the link though for sure going to get to the rest of it real quick! So instead of taking out the biomax I'll give him a couple scoops of substrate, a little fake plastic plant I was going to remove soon anyway, and a piece of sponge (smaller piece now I know its good to use the decor and substrate too haha)

Thanks for the input so far guys! I think we should have some good luck with this now *knocks on wood*

Also my cousin recommended me this YouTube video called 3 minute cycle, and the guy just takes out the sponge on one filter, wipes the solids off, then takes a cup of tank water and swishes it around till the water is dark and nasty looking then goes and pours it into his other tank.

I'm thinking instead of physically cutting a piece just doing this, and giving him some substrate and the small plant, but only if somebody has a good word about it haha don't wanna mess up his tank

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Aquanero

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All of these methods are viable ways to seed a tank with established beneficial bacteria and will jump start the nitrogen cycle. If I were to use the method you disribe in the “You Tube” video I would pure it slowly into the filter not the tank.

Any of these methods will establish a colony of BB, however the amount of viable bacteria will have to grow to sufficient numbers to handle the bio-load of the system. In other words a 75 gallon tank housing one gold fish will hold a sufficient amount of bacteria to consume the waste produced by the bio-load of that system (one goldfish). If you through in twenty goldfish the bio-capacity will be overwhelmed and you will then experience what is referred to as a mini-cycle. The ammonia will spike until the Nitrosomonas sp. (Ammonia consuming bacteria) grow to sufficient numbers to deal with it, The Nitrosomonas sp having converted the ammonia to Nitrite will show in your test kit as a drop in ammonia and a spike in nitrites. Nitrite consuming bacteria Nitrobacter sp. will then start to multiply as they convert the nitrite to nitrate. Once the nitrite is converted to nitrate the end product of the cycle the nitrate can then be removed via water changes. The system will then start to stabilize as the bacteria establishes in sufficient numbers to effectively handle the systems bio-load.

I realize this is a little more than “yes it will work” but understanding the science behind how it works is important. The name “3 minute cycle” is misleading in as much as it may lead to a false sense of security and jeopardize the well being of the fish. The bottom line is add a couple of fish at a time and give the system a chance to catch up before adding more.
 
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Inglorious

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When I set up a new tank I run that filter on an established tank for a few weeks to feed it, I also overfeed during that time to make sure there is plenty of food for the bb, it's worked for me everytime

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B

BuffaloPolypteridae

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Aquanero said:
All of these methods are viable ways to seed a tank with established beneficial bacteria and will jump start the nitrogen cycle. If I were to use the method you disrobe in the “You Tube” video I would pure it slowly into the filter not the tank.

Any of these methods will establish a colony of BB, however the amount of viable bacteria will have to grow to sufficient numbers to handle the bio-load of the system. In other words a 75 gallon tank housing one gold fish will hold a sufficient amount of bacteria to consume the waste produced by the bio-load of that system (one goldfish). If you through in twenty goldfish the bio-capacity will be overwhelmed and you will then experience what is referred to as a mini-cycle. The ammonia will spike until the Nitrosomonas sp. (Ammonia consuming bacteria) grow to sufficient numbers to deal with it, The Nitrosomonas sp having converted the ammonia to Nitrate will show in your test kit as a drop in ammonia and a spike in nitrates. Nitrite consuming bacteria Nitrobacter sp. will then start to multiply as they convert the nitrite to nitrate. Once the nitrite is converted to nitrate the end product of the cycle the nitrate can then be removed via water changes. The system will then start to stabilize as the bacteria establishes in sufficient numbers to effectively handle the systems bio-load.

I realize this is a little more than “yes it will work” but understanding the science behind how it works is important. The name “3 minute cycle” is misleading in as much as it may lead to a false sense of security and jeopardize the well being of the fish. The bottom line is add a couple of fish at a time and give the system a chance to catch up before adding more.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah his bio load will not be much, he's upgrading from a 40 to the 70 and only has a butterfly fish, endlcheri bichir and rope fish. The rope is only 6 inch, endl about 4, butterfly also about 3 or 4. Babies still really, and a geophagus balzani about 2 inch

I have read up some on nitrogen cycle info, but I really like the way you explained it, and I like to take all the advice I get (unless bad of course lol) I get from the experienced guys (only been in it for a few years now).

Seeing as though it will only be 4 fish should he add them all at once or one by one?

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skjl47

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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
Oh yeah his bio load will not be much, he's upgrading from a 40 to the 70 and only has a butterfly fish, endlcheri bichir and rope fish. The rope is only 6 inch, endl about 4, butterfly also about 3 or 4. Babies still really, and a geophagus balzani about 2 inch

I have read up some on nitrogen cycle info, but I really like the way you explained it, and I like to take all the advice I get (unless bad of course lol) I get from the experienced guys (only been in it for a few years now).

Seeing as though it will only be 4 fish should he add them all at once or one by one?
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Click to expand...
Hello; There are two ways to add the fish as you mention. Adding the fish all at once can work if enough of the established media loaded with bb is added at near the same time. The balance between the waste products the fish produce (ammonia) and the bb that consume and convert the ammonia may not be exact but should equalize fairly soon.

A key is that the bb loaded material and the fish need to be introduced into the new tank within a short time window. If the bb loaded material is introduced too much ahead of time their numbers will dwindle due to a lack of their food which is the ammonia.

You can keep the bb population numbers up without fish by adding pure ammonia or creating an ammonia producing condition which is often referred to as a fishless cycle. It sounds as thou your friend does not have to do the fishless cycle process as he/she has a good situation in that an established tank is handy from which the bb loaded material can be taken at any time.

Adding fish one or a few at a time, I believe, is a good practice when a new tank is being set up and there is not a source of bb loaded material handy. This allows a small population of bb to increase gradually as the ammonia levels increase with each additional fish and prevents a large ammonia spike when adding a large amount of fish to a tank with few bb in place.

Perhaps the best situation is to add enough bb loaded material to be much more than needed to actually consume the ammonia from a group of fish. This way the excess population of bb will soon reduce to a number that is in balance with the fish and the fish will be less likely to experience any ammonia issues.
Good luck
 
B

BuffaloPolypteridae

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Buffalo
Thank you for the detailed response!

Based on the input, and so none of his displays get caught in a spike, he will be adding 3 small Molly's that I breed for feeders, and his now 2 ( he picked another up earlier) geophagus balzani after a few days, then the 2 at a time for his preds, spaced out by a couple of days also.

The BB material I will be putting in is the sponge-water poured directly into his filter media, several small fake plants, about 5 - 10 of the biomax pellets, and a good half pound of substrate. He plans on using the 40 for breeding his own feeders and keeping a few mini monsters w/ them, so I would rather take a bit of stuff out of my own then risk running his breeder into a spike trying to colonize a tank quite larger then itself. He owes me some feeders lol

Sound like a good plan?

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