beneficial bacteria on new filter question

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Blazin

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 20, 2013
176
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Illinois
I have been googling around and seem to find different answers to my question.
I have an established 55g tank that has been up for a while now. I recently bought a sponge filter so i can set up a QT tank.
Now my question is how long should I leave the sponge filter in established tank before I can take it out and set up the QT tank?
I am looking to buy new fish, but don't want to add it directly to the tank before I quarantine them. Some of the answers I found googling said it takes a couple days for a good amount of beneficial bacteria to grow on the sponge filter, others said weeks.
 
hello; My take has been that some beneficial bacteria (bb) will settle on the new sponge filter right away. the issue for you seems to be how long before enough bb have colonized the new sponge to be effective in the QT. Here is a thought; take some of the filter material from the established tank and rub it on the new sponge filter as this should transfer a good number of the bb.

You then have a couple of choices. One is to leave the new sponge in the established tank for a few days to a week or two and try to guess when the colonies have increased. Another is to place the now seeded sponge in the QT and provide some source of ammonia to feed the bb and grow colonies over time.

That you have an established tank offers the opportunity to quickly get the QT going. Take some solid material from the established tank and place it in the QT. The material can be some filter media, some substrate such as gravel, some plants or most anything solid from the established tank. Put the material in the QT along with the new sponge and one or two small fish or snails. The fish and snails will produce some ammonia and feed the bb. If you have enough established material the QT can hold several fish right away. It will likely still take some days to get the new sponge colonized, after which the material from the established tank can be removed. Some report putting some gravel in a mesh bag for easy removal later.

Another tactic that I picked up on one of these forums is to get some extra sponge filter material and split it. I have two halves on my sponge filter base and can quickly remove a half to seed a new setup. Sponge filters can also be buried in the substrate if you do not wisth to look at them in a display tank.
Good luck
 
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