Cycling a sponge

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devder1

devder1

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 21, 2008
3,480
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arizona
so I set up a 20g to growout my cons, and I bought a sponge filter, had it on my 40g community for 5 days, 40g is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 15 ppm nitrate
Filled up the 20g 2Nite and put in some flake 2 start some nitrate in it
Wen is it ready 2 move the filter into the 20g
Wen can I put my 1/4 inch convict fry in the 20g?
Thx for all of the help!!!!!!!
 
Take out 50% of the water on your 40G and put that in your 20G... refill your 40G.

Thats a 50% water change and your tank is cycled.
 
Dylan;2418662; said:
Take out 50% of the water on your 40G and put that in your 20G... refill your 40G.

Thats a 50% water change and your tank is cycled.
Click to expand...

Agreed...moving a bunch of the same water over with the sponge will ensure it will still be working. Substrate helps too.
 
I have to strongly disagree--- There is zero biological bacteria present in the water column. So moving water from a cycled tank to a noncycled tank does nothing for the cycle. That is a old myth. The bacteria grow on every surface of the tank and filter and decorations, etc. So even if you cycle that sponge filter in another tank that is good. And you put it in the new tank, the new tank is still not 100% cycled. The bacteria will still most likely need to colonize the rest of the tank to effectively do its job. If the load is high enough. You may get lucky since it is just small fry, and a cycled sponge may be enough. I would move some substrate over to it from the good tank along with the sponge filter. And I would also do a fishless cycle for a week or 2 to atleast get the bacteria eating the ammonia before stocking it. Or if you need ti now then get a test kit for ammonia and nitrite and test daily and do water changes everytime the ammonia gets to .5ppm or higher.
 
I would run the sponge filter for 2 weeks in the established tank before moving it over. Either that, or transfer decoration, media, or substrate to the new tank with the sponge. Please monitor both tanks carefully after shuffling the filters/media/substrate as a mini-cycle is possible in either.
 
lol you can put baby convicts into a bare bottom aquarium and they'll do fine. unless you have thousands in a 20 gallon aquarium, the amount of nitrates that they will produce will be the same as if you used guppies to originally cycle your aquarium. although it is not a preferred practice, adding fry into a tank will cycle the tank as they grow. just match temperatures in the new tank. it's ok to use some of hte old water but is not necessary. I just moved my sisters convict fry into 2.5 gallon aquarium with a red sea nano filter. she has about 10 uneaten fry all 1 cm in length that were moved. you can add substrate and that will be cycled as well.


just make sure that if you put in 100 fry, they will outgrow the tank soon so be sure that you are practicing good stocking rates for the tanks and that you will have space for the adult fry
 
msjinkzd;2419542; said:
I would run the sponge filter for 2 weeks in the established tank before moving it over. Either that, or transfer decoration, media, or substrate to the new tank with the sponge. Please monitor both tanks carefully after shuffling the filters/media/substrate as a mini-cycle is possible in either.
Click to expand...

well see i wanted it to just be bare bottom, simply for ease of waterchanges less spots for uneaten food, dead fish all that good stuff to be
so i was hoping not to have to put any gravel or anything, except maybe a rock or 2
ive got some rock in there so could i move it with them?
also there is some java moss in the tank were they were born, wud u move that 2 the growout also?
thx for all of your help!
 
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