HoB cyclin

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Dark Rose

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 27, 2013
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United States
Just getting back into things with a more serious setup, and have a question about fishless cycling...

I know the cycle, just went though it with my canister filter on my 75g, things went fine, fish seem to be doing great...

I'm thinking about setting up a smaller 30g tall as a community tank in my son's room...
I've been recommended the Aquaclear or Fluval HoB filters since they're basically a canister in HoB form... Since they use multi-stage filtration just like my canister, with sponge media and bio-media (doubling up on sponge or bio, skipping the charcoal)... Do I need to cycle it too to establish the bacteria in the bio-media? Or can I just start it up and let it establish over time with fish in the tank?
 
strollo22 said:
Cycling process is the same with all filters. Just take some media from the canister and add it to the hob filter


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Click to expand...

Thanks! I've heard HoB filters that just use the cheap cartridges don't need it, but I figured with a "canister-style" HoB it probably needed cycled... I'm still a ways out on my smaller tank, just wanted to know the steps needed to do it right...
 
Existing bacteria from the media in the canister filter is absolutely the way to go. As normal, make sure the water in the new tank and HoB is fully de-chlorinated, and then plop in some of the seeded media from the other tank. There are 2 types of bacteria (first one doubles every 10-20 hours, second one takes longer), but you'll find that things look pretty easy compared to the first tank, cycling wise.

To be super conservative, you could try some ammonia in the tank after you add the seeded media, but before you add fish. I expect the readings in a few hours will be at or near zero for ammonia and nitrite.

Then add the fish. Just feed sparingly at first and check the parameters after a few hours and if all looks good, keep upping the food. If readings are not zero, stop feeding so much and let the bacteria populations double or quadruple.
 
Drstrangelove said:
Existing bacteria from the media in the canister filter is absolutely the way to go. As normal, make sure the water in the new tank and HoB is fully de-chlorinated, and then plop in some of the seeded media from the other tank. There are 2 types of bacteria (first one doubles every 10-20 hours, second one takes longer), but you'll find that things look pretty easy compared to the first tank, cycling wise.

To be super conservative, you could try some ammonia in the tank after you add the seeded media, but before you add fish. I expect the readings in a few hours will be at or near zero for ammonia and nitrite.

Then add the fish. Just feed sparingly at first and check the parameters after a few hours and if all looks good, keep upping the food. If readings are not zero, stop feeding so much and let the bacteria populations double or quadruple.
Click to expand...

Cool. I was told not to clean my canister for around 12 weeks after it got cycled, to allow the biofilm to build up, but opening it up to take out some media won't hurt it?
 
Dark Rose said:
Cool. I was told not to clean my canister for around 12 weeks after it got cycled, to allow the biofilm to build up, but opening it up to take out some media won't hurt it?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not suggesting you clean the canister, just that you take a bit of the media out and put it in the HoB. You have a good question and I don't think I know the answer. I don't want to experiment so let's get some more input on this.
 
Dark Rose said:
Cool. I was told not to clean my canister for around 12 weeks after it got cycled, to allow the biofilm to build up, but opening it up to take out some media won't hurt it?
Click to expand...

You can open your canister everyday if you want. You could clean your canister everyday if you want. What you don't want to do is clean all of the biomedia at one time (1/3 at a time every couple of months at most). In fact, you may not have to clean the biomedia at all, but this depends on the type of bio media you're using, and how dirty/clogged it gets.

Here's what I would do. Get the AquaClear, or whatever HOB you decide. It will come with some bio media. Open your canister and mix the new media with the old media, and then scoop some out for the HOB. Done. This should be plenty for a "community tank in my son's room."
 
Or, maybe you're not getting a new HOB. I got a 30G hospital tank off CL that came with an HOB and some other stuff. It didn't come with bio media. So what I did there was I harvested a couple of pot scrubbies from my sump and stuffed them in the HOB, good to go. See if you can fit two or three dollar store style pot scrubbies in your canister. Leave them there for a few days and they'll seed themselves and be ready to harvest.

To reemphasize what Dr said, make sure the water is de-chlorinated or you'll kill the bio.

I've been wanting to do a tank in my kids room, but I'm scared his little brothers will figure out a way to wreak some kind of havoc.
 
sincebeen said:
Or, maybe you're not getting a new HOB. I got a 30G hospital tank off CL that came with an HOB and some other stuff. It didn't come with bio media. So what I did there was I harvested a couple of pot scrubbies from my sump and stuffed them in the HOB, good to go. See if you can fit two or three dollar store style pot scrubbies in your canister. Leave them there for a few days and they'll seed themselves and be ready to harvest.

To reemphasize what Dr said, make sure the water is de-chlorinated or you'll kill the bio.

I've been wanting to do a tank in my kids room, but I'm scared his little brothers will figure out a way to wreak some kind of havoc.
Click to expand...

well, as an alternative to pot scrubbies, I bought some of the large sheets of filter media to cut down for my canister (cheaper than pre-cut) I could do the same thing with them... Right on...

And the biomedia in my canister is half Fluval ceramic rings, half Seachem Matrix... (recommended to use Matrix after I had the rings already).

I use Prime for de-chlorination.
 
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