You know "old tank" water has nothing beneficial in it... Just waste and potential disease.
I use Seachem Stability myself. Fill up the tank, add Prime, let it run for 24 hours to gas out, and then next day add fish and start the 7(ish) days of Stability.
Used filter media is fine if you're 100% sure it's from a healthy tank.
Well I know some people might be tempted to take me to task but my tanks my way is what I say.
Beside that, I have yet to lose a fish doing it.
Ok lets take my 300g. I had fish in within 15 minutes of filling it up with water straight outta the tap and did not lose one of them.
I will use my 300 as the template. Filters rena 4 (x2) fx5 (x1) filters set up with biorings in middle part and foam below and above that. Fill the tank with water, hit it with 12 caps of prime and the recommended amount of seachem stability. Then take sponges from my other filters and squeeze them into the 300g. For substrate I make sure that I take it from and existing tank, as well as the driftwood and decor. This way the substrate and decor has existing bacteria on it.
I also make sure to put a few powerheads on with airhoses fed into them to add a good amount of airflow to the tank.
If I think it is needed I will also add a aqua clear 110 or 2 to the tank to help pull all the gunky goodness I squeezed into the tank out of the water column.
And in go the fish. Usually I will wait 12 hours or so to put fish in, but this time I needed to put these fish in this tank or risk them smoking other fish in other tanks. So in they went.
About 1 hr later I pulled a 50% WC and then hit the tank with the maximum allowed amount of prime(15 caps) and also put in the recommended amount of stability. Then I leave the tank for the night.
The next day(24 hrs later) I do another 50% WC and do a double dose prime to cover the new water as well as stability. I also take the filters off and squeeze out the sponges in tank water to remove all of the gunk they have pulled out of the water though I will leave the rings as they are. Usually the filters will have cleared the water column within the first day or so.
Then over the next 2 weeks I will usually do a WC every 2nd day and then put the tank into normal weekly WC rotation.
ups i didnt post complete, i cycled using some water of another tank, drift wood from other tank, and 1 plecostomus (they inmortal)
just go to your pet store, buy a plecostomus , tell them to give u alot of water of the tank and drift wood from tanks, and thats all. it cycles pretty fast
I hear the term filter media thrown around alot. I have a few magnum 350 canister which has the blue filter pad that catches dirt wrapped around the container that holds the carbon. Is this the filter media we are speaking of? Or are we talking about bio balls from an existing wet/dry set-up?
ups i didnt post complete, i cycled using some water of another tank, drift wood from other tank, and 1 plecostomus (they inmortal)
just go to your pet store, buy a plecostomus , tell them to give u alot of water of the tank and drift wood from tanks, and thats all. it cycles pretty fast
but plecos are not immortal. Sure they can survive from an ammonia burn but they don't do well in toxic-ammonia waste. Don't know why people are still doing the cycle using fish when fishless cycling have been around for quite awhile now. All you have to do is dose ammonia (quite easy to get) into the tank and wait for the nitrifying bacterias to colonize your biological media (faster if you use seeded media from established tanks and/or Seachem Stability).
Besides, a common pleco creates a ton of waste which easily pollute the water and you will have to do frequent water changes. You also risk transferring harmful diseases and parasites into the new tank. "Established" tank water holds no/negligible nitrifying bacteria as they are all found in the media, walls, substrate. All you are doing is transferring nitrates which beats the point of a water change.
I hear the term filter media thrown around alot. I have a few magnum 350 canister which has the blue filter pad that catches dirt wrapped around the container that holds the carbon. Is this the filter media we are speaking of? Or are we talking about bio balls from an existing wet/dry set-up?
I run lots of sponge filters in my various setups. I just move a couple of these to the new tank as well as a fish or two. Keep an eye on water parameters and do small daily waterchanges.
I hear the term filter media thrown around alot. I have a few magnum 350 canister which has the blue filter pad that catches dirt wrapped around the container that holds the carbon. Is this the filter media we are speaking of? Or are we talking about bio balls from an existing wet/dry set-up?
I hear the term filter media thrown around alot. I have a few magnum 350 canister which has the blue filter pad that catches dirt wrapped around the container that holds the carbon. Is this the filter media we are speaking of? Or are we talking about bio balls from an existing wet/dry set-up?
"Filter media" encompasses all of that stuff. Any media, whether cartridge, bio balls, scrubbies, ceramic pieces, or whatever else will have some bacteria on it and will help speed up or eliminate the cycle
