I am setting up a SW tank for the first time and was wondering if I would be able to take the bacteria from my cichlid tanks filter and use it to seed the new SW tank, or would the different water parameters just kill off the FW bacteria?
Seeding a new setup to speed up a cycle?
- Thread starter Addikted2Cichlids
- Start date
The quickest way I know of is using the live rock like mentioned above. You can also add a market prawn in there and let it decay to give the bacteria some extra food. I have not tried that personally but have heard lots of people who do. I simply put the live rock in and waited. Took my hundred gallon about 3 weeks. You can also get a cup full of sand from another saltwater fish keeper in your area. I would only do this if you know them well enough to trust what you are putting in your tank though.
Go to you LSF and ask them to wring out the media from the filtration system into a bag and add it to your tank. Basically you want everything that is trapped in the foam or floss from the filter. It is dirty water and probably smells a little but will seriously speed up the process. Cut my time in half.
Get some Seachem Stability. I use it in my QT and just cycled my 300g FO system using it and it works very well.
