Borrowing Some Mature Media

[Westcoaster]

Hi
I'm going to set up a new tank in the next couple of weeks using an EF1400 external filter, they have three baskets for using different filter media, my choice is bio balls, ceramic rings and carbon, the carbon and ceramic rings come in bags, two bags per basket, the bio balls are loose.

I have a friend who runs a couple of these filters and before being cheeky and asking for some mature media I wanted to check how much is safe to remove from her filters.
If I was to get one bag of ceramic out of her two, would that have a damaging affect to her tank? Same with the bio balls if I get half.
As she's running two of these filters I could in theory get 100% mature media to start cycling.
Does this sound like a good way to get started? Thoughts please.

 

[Staxx]

if her tanks healthy then its perfect

 

[OldMan47]

If your friend has a well established filter, not a recently cycled one, a 1/3 sample of her media should be safe to take and will get your tank cycled in the first week using the standard fishless cycling method. Do offer to swap media, not just take some from her filter.

 

[Westcoaster]

If your friend has a well established filter, not a recently cycled one, a 1/3 sample of her media should be safe to take and will get your tank cycled in the first week using the standard fishless cycling method. Do offer to swap media, not just take some from her filter.

Her tanks are about a year old now and healthy, I've read about using 1/3 however these filters use bagged media and I don't think she would like to split the bags, that's why I was asking about using one mature bag and swapping it for a fresh one and a bottle of wine (for her not the fish).
What I don't want to do is upset her tanks by putting in half new media.

 

[OldMan47]

As long as the donor tank is left with plenty of mature media, the donor tank should be fine and the good sized sample should help you get cycled very quickly. The exact ratio of 1/3 is really not critical. If you take anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the mature media, both tanks should be fine, but at the high end it would require testing not typical for a mature tank just to make sure that all is well. That does not mean it will not work but instead reflects my own prejudice for confirmation of my simplistic assumptions.

 

[Westcoaster]

As long as the donor tank is left with plenty of mature media, the donor tank should be fine and the good sized sample should help you get cycled very quickly. The exact ratio of 1/3 is really not critical. If you take anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the mature media, both tanks should be fine, but at the high end it would require testing not typical for a mature tank just to make sure that all is well. That does not mean it will not work but instead reflects my own prejudice for confirmation of my simplistic assumptions.

Thanks we'll give it a try and keep an eye on her tanks as I previously said I don't want too upset her tanks, with mine I'm in no rush to cycle up.