Cycling a new canister!

[Steveo1987]

Alright guys and gals,

Quick question, how long does it take to cycle a brand new canister filter on a tank that is fully set-up and running! I want to set the canister filter up on this old tank and eventually move it to a new tank when its finished cycling. So my question is, how long should this process take?? Thanks!

 

[Neophyte]

What I usually do is let the new filter run along with the old filter for a couple of weeks and then add to new tank. The only thing to keep in mind while cycled it will not be ready for a full tank of inhabitants right away, you will still have to introduce slowly or after getting the filter seeded and before adding any fish to the new tank use the fish-less cycling method to bump up the bacteria for a heavier bio-load.

 

[velanarris]

When you cycle a tank, what you're cycling is the filter, not the tank itself.

So 2 to 6 weeks is the average, but as Neo said, that can be substantially reduced by teaming old and new.

 

[FSM]

Put some old media in the new filter as well.

 

[Bderick67]

I would go two months. You can speed it up but need to gradually add bioload and/or reduce the bacteria in the other filter(s). Myself I mix in the media from an established filter while adding some new media to the old filter.

What kind of filters are you dealing with?