Q. about cycling with established media

[genEus]

Hello everyone,

Finally it seems my fishless cycle is progressing after I borrowed a mug full of gravel from a friend's established tank yesterday! Overnight my ammonia has dropped from 4ppm to 1ppm and nitrites went up to 0.25ppm. I'm so relieved!

Now one question that I've always wondered about. When seeding your tank with an already established bacterial colony, what is the effect on your environment when you take that seeded colony out? I don't want to keep the gravel but does it mean that when the tank is cycled, I can take out the gravel with no visible effect on my tank, or by taking out the seeded gravel, would I be removing some considerable amount of bacteria?

Thanks for your responses!

 

[CHOMPERS]

Seeding provides a start up population of bacteria. It then grows on your other media. The population will quickly become established in your media so it won't have an appreciable affect by removing the gravel later on.