Sponge filters and BB

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poppalina

poppalina

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 26, 2010
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How long does it take for a sponge filter to establish enough BB to maintain the cycle if run in a mature tank, I am looking to seed the sponge filters to run in other tanks.
 
You could also set them up in the new tanks but add some of the media from mother tanks filtration. Or just use tank water from the established tank to fill the new tank and there shouldn't be any cycle at all.


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It is going to take a while to get a good productive colony. You can speed up process some by seeding it in water which is squeezed out of another sponge in a bucket by itself. But most of that will be older bacteria which have been shed.

I run extras in tanks or sumps just for that purpose. Just set up a few and let them go.

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coyotethug said:
It is going to take a while to get a good productive colony. You can speed up process some by seeding it in water which is squeezed out of another sponge in a bucket by itself. But most of that will be older bacteria which have been shed.

I run extras in tanks or sumps just for that purpose. Just set up a few and let them go.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Click to expand...

If you are looking to use them to avoid/help with cycles in new tanks this is the way to go. 24 hours won't cut it if this is what you are looking to do. Think of it just like the bio media in your filter, except the sponge probably doesn't have NEAR the flow rate as your filter.
 
Working on setting up a fish room and was going to use sponge filters on the smaller tanks to save on the electric bill. Now I have 7 established tanks from 20 gallon to 180 gallon and would like to add sponge filters to those tanks so when I set up my other tanks I can pull the sponge filters and place in the new tanks. Having never used these before I don't know how long it will take for a good colony of BB to build to support the new tank and eliminate the cycle.
 
I speak from experience... sponge filters ,run in an est. tank, are going to take at least 3-4 weeks to "seed"enough to run a tank on their own ,if you want to use another filter from one of your est. tanks(providing the filter is established)this will greatly increase cycling speed..:)
 
lp85253 said:
I speak from experience... sponge filters ,run in an est. tank, are going to take at least 3-4 weeks to "seed"enough to run a tank on their own ,if you want to use another filter from one of your est. tanks(providing the filter is established)this will greatly increase cycling speed..:)
Click to expand...

This is correct.

Fresh de-chlorinated water in a new tank will contain only the bacteria that land on the water surface from the air (although some believe that they may exist in small quantities from the tap water itself.) They are non motile (no spores) and will only reach the sponge randomly unless a full population is adjacent to the sponge. Consider the demographics of the BB population: it will only double every 7-20 hours (it will be more at the upper end unless conditions are optimal for temp, food, pH, surface structure.)

BB bacteria exist in densities of at least 1 billion per milliliter (.061 cubic inches) for nitrosomonas and 10,000,000 for nitrobacter (see http://www.ceric.net/wonmun3/ksee/04708383.pdf). Please note that this count for nitrobacter is likely low by a factor of 100 since the study was done in a high ammonia, low nitrite environment.

A small, mature sponge filter would have hundreds times this figure. Assuming a random start of 100 nitrosomonas and a 16 hour double rate, it would take 3 weeks to reach 214 billion of the needed BB. Roughly speaking, that's like 13 cubic inches of mature BB.

Starting with a seeded sponge or material from a seeded sponge is the way to go.
 
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