Cycling New Tank With Old Tank Water

[waldo]

A few days ago I set up a 29 gallon and added some water/gunk off the gravel from my old tank in the new tank filter. I waited 4 days then added 4 small fish, its been 2 days since I put the fish in. Do you think it is safe for other fish yet? I don't know how long it takes for the bacteria to establish themselves on the new filter media.

 

[SamUK]

are you still running the old tank?

you havent really cloned the tank as theres nothing beneficial in the water really.

its all in the filter pads and a lil in the gravel.

if you can out the old filter in the new tank or maybe some of the filter media into the new filter.

either way should pretty much cycle the tank right away.

another lil tip is to put some gravel in from the old tank, if youve used sand or a different gravel then put some of the old gravel in a stocking so it doesnt get mixed up

 

[WILDER]

Only ever add something from another tank to a new tank if there was no desease in it.
I wouldn't advise any new fish yet, and i would take a sample of your new tank water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you, then get back to the board with the results.

 

[waldo]

I do still have the old tank but no filter media as it is a low tec betta tank.
I pretty much sucked the gravel clean the other day so I could add the gunk to the new tank. I'll try to get a sample to the LFS today.

Oh, the old tank was healthy. I know better then to use sick tank water.

 

[mark.w.jones]

I do still have the old tank but no filter media as it is a low tec betta tank.
I pretty much sucked the gravel clean the other day so I could add the gunk to the new tank. I'll try to get a sample to the LFS today.

Oh, the old tank was healthy. I know better then to use sick tank water.

It's worth getting yourself a freshwater liquid master test kit that you can use to test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as well as pH. This'll save you the hassle and cost of taking water samples to your lfs all the time. In a new tank you really need to be testing water stats fairly frequently as things establish so id highly recommend getting one. The Aquarium Pharmaseuticals API freshwater master test kit is the one most people in this forum use.