Cloning Tank Advice

[sammy86]

hello there!!
right...

i am going from a 10 gallon 1 year old unplanted tank to

a 6 gallon fully planted tank...

i heard about cloning so i filled the water about 60% with new water - left it 2 days, then added sand (with some bits of waste) and water from the exsisting tank...

i have the new plants and filter in and now i am running my mature filter in the new tank..

am i doing this right? if so how long do i have to have the old filter in there for it to be safe enough to put my new tankmakes in.

i am only putting in my 4 Dwarf frogs and a hillstream loach.

thanks! ^^

 

[Teelie]

Whenever I clone a tank, I always leave the mature filter in for at least two weeks to give the bacteria time to transplant. A month is ideal though if you can do that.

 

[sammy86]

oh ... i thought the point of cloning a tank was to bypass the whole cycle...a month is aoundabout the same time you cycle...a little confused now ^^

 

[stang1]

I had the same question when I wanted to clone a tank and got some good advice from Andywg.
I took the media from one of my bigger filters and put it in the new filter. Fish were added the next day with no problems.

 

[jayjay]

As soon as you add the mature filter you add the fish.

 

[Teelie]

^^^ Yep, that's the shortcut. No waiting a month for fish to go in. You can just pop them in right then and there.

 

[sammy86]

thanks for your help

 

[Chrispixx]

If you wanted to be totally safe you could add some ammonia (a little bit) to make sure it gets converted.. like it normally would in a cycled tank.

But hopefully you will be ok.

 

[Chrispixx]

I'm not trying to be a wise-arse.... but i've never known anyone to go from one size tank to a smaller one.