transferring bacteria colony

[frankthetank]

So upon everyones advice on why my nitrites may have been high, I upgraded the filter on my 38 gallon to an Emperor 400. Right now I still have the old Aqueon 30 filter in the tank as well as the Emperor because I didn't want my tank to cycle again...however the hood wont fit with both filters on the tank so anyway to move the bacteria colony in my Aqueon to the Emperor? Sorry if it's a dumb question haha

 

[the_deeb]

I'm not sure what the filtration media is on the aqueons, but can you just stick the media from your old filters into the emp 400? I typically like to use Aquaclears simply because it's so easy to swap media between them.

 

[frankthetank]

The Aqueon has a plastic piece for the bacteria. The Emperor has extra slots for media...maybe I can take that out and put it in the Emperor? Dunno if that would benefit it at all.

 

[the_deeb]

Sounds like that would work fine - just stick the plastic piece into the emperor to seed the filter and get a jump start on your cycle.

 

[PiebaldMidas]

I have the 400's and I think that idea will work