Does cycling media require water flow?

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aromao

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 23, 2016
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Singapore
I recently bought a second-hand 6ft tank set (with media and pump) from someone and unfortunately, he cleaned and completely dried the media before selling it to me. Now, I have to re-cycle all the media (about 10kg) but the pump picked a good time to malfunction and I had to send it for repairing.
I am currently trying to start the cycling process before the pump is fixed by placing the media into my 3ft tank and placing an air stone underneath. However, I am unsure if this would be effective as there is little to no water flow through the media.
Thus, I would like to ask: does cycling media require water flow or is the water flow only to bring oxygenated water to the media?
 
dan518 said:
You need a certain amount to bring oxygen and ammonia to the media
Click to expand...

I have a 1000L/H filter providing a current but the current disperses before it reaches the media, so I don't think it's enough..
Are the air bubbles insufficient to provide oxygen to the media?
 
If you have or can get an undergravel filter just a cheapy. Should run 10 bucks or so at any pet store and set your media on the grate it should work. Or just move your power head or get a cheap power head to flow on top of the media. Another cheap idea to keep it cycling is to take a bucket drill a hole in the bottom and have a cheapo power head pump water to the top creating a cheap wet dry.

Bacteria will settle on anything with or without flow so long as there is a presence of ammonia and oxygen. It may just not do it fast enough for your liking.

If you have some old hob filters laying around you can fill the compartments with the media and move water that way.

If all you have is the air pump and don't want to spend money you can make a bottle filter with couple soda bottles or milk jugs and channel the water movement from the air pump a little more efficiently.
 
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I don't think I can bear to spend money just to speed up the process slightly. The only HOB filter I have now is a tiny 180L/H one that can fit practically 20 ceramic rings so I won't use it. Other than that, I don't have any more spare equipment lying around.
I tried my best to make the air bubbles rise as efficiently as possible.
What do you think of this set-up?
IMG_1937_zpsu5mxvkm2.jpg
 
Just get an air driven sponge filter and pump, and run it as the main and set all the other media you want to cycle in the tank on the bare bottom. That's how I run my pre-cycled media in a 20long constantly
 
Thanks to all for the advice! I will try to get some cheap equipment to optimise the cycling process and once I'm done cycling I can keep them as spare.
 
never hurts to have spare stuff . With that much media I would take 4 2 liter bottles and make bottle filters. It would be the cheapest easiest way to get water moving through all of that.
 
Maybe I missed it but do you have an ammonia source? If not no cycling will occur.
 
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