Freshly sealed 265 gallon

[Rawhidesabi]

Ok just sealed my 265 and day by day i have added water and it is now full. I am planning on waiting a few days before i drain it (a few times) so that all toxins are gone. So now my question is if cycling it in my way will be good enough or should i do this dropping ammonia in it and watching the cycle begin. I am taking a few decorations out of my 55 and putting them into this tank. I am also taking a currently running filter that should have plenty of built up bacteria in it. A second filter will also be placed on this tank with a bunch of carbons and such to try to rid the tank of any chemicals. I have read soo many posts that all contradict each other so i wanted to ask the pros. How long should this tank sit with just the filters? When can i add my substrate and plants, like should i wait a day of filtration for the carbon to absorb any chemicals or just go all in from the start? And how long should i actually wait before dropping fish in. A sun sun 304 will be the filter with biohome and bacteria balls inside of it since they have not fully dissolved yet. And of course the other stages of filtration in it as well. The carbon filter is a 100gph canister that will basically have just carbon and some old filter it still has in it with bacteria.(also currently running minus carbon) I am also going to drop 30% of my 55s water into this tank since i am always doing water changes anyway. I know most bacteria is not just floating around but i cant see the harm in ot sonce my 55 is at perfect levels with trace elements in the water. How long will the tank actually have to sit and cycle until i can add fish? Would throwing a buck worth of feeder fish in it during this help?

I am of course going to check my levels before putting them in. But 2-3 week wait may just kill me due to overexcitement.

 

[Justin David]

Are u moving the 55 gallons entire stock to the new tank? If so, I would just move everything into the new tank- water, fish, filters, decorations etc the bio capacity is there it just needs to go wherever the fish go.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I was reading your post and it looks as if you are currently running a SunSun 304 on your 55, along with another 100gph canister. Then you want to move both of those filters to the 265 and add carbon to the smaller one.

I just wanted to inform you that you will need a lot more filtration than that for the 265. I think you should add at least two more SunSun 304's, but I would add three if I were you.

Other than that, I think that as long as you move the filter on the 55 over with the fish then you should be fine to go ahead and move them all over when it's ready. If you want to check to make sure that the water is clear of chemicals then you could add a feeder to it for a day or two. Just know that you are risking adding a parasite to the new tank before you're moving your fish over to it.

 

[Rawhidesabi]

Yea thats not all of my filtration for my 265.....i have a large sump and moving bed filter that i am also going to use. I did not mention this because it has no bacteria in it so didnt mention it.
So your saying as long as the filters go with the fish i dont have to wait 2-3 weeks for the cycle to begin. Is that because its already kinda cycled in the filter? I like this news!!!

 

[Rawhidesabi]

And also yes the entire tank except substrate is moving. Actually going to sell my aggressive south americans and roll with geos and severums and maybe some schooling sharks or something.

 

[pops]

none of the choices, new tank, nothing added but water and ammonia, 6 to 8 weeks.

 

[Rawhidesabi]

Yep not waiting 8 weeks lol. I will probably have to buy that bio stuff that has to be refrigerated if 6-8 weeks is the actual answer to my question.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I think you will be ok to put the old filter on the tank, along with the new one and run it right away. Just be sure to test the water every day, maybe even more than once and make changes if you need to. You might have to do some extra water changes for a while, but I think it should be alright.

When it comes time that you want to pull the SunSun 304 off, if you want to take it off, then I would slowly move its media contents over to the sump, little by little, over several weeks. Once it's empty, just pull it of the tank.

 

[Owens]

Yep not waiting 8 weeks lol. I will probably have to buy that bio stuff that has to be refrigerated if 6-8 weeks is the actual answer to my question.

The only correct way is time. Listen to pops and be patient. 6 to 8 weeks is pretty standard.