Cycling With Cycled Water

[JMatthew]

I now have 3 tanks up and going and was thinking. Between the three tanks it would be pretty feasible that when I go to a new tank later to take the water from the water changes and add them to a new tank. Would this allow me to skip the overall cycling process?

 

[jmkgreen]

Nope, the water only contains traces of the good bacteria. The filters contains over 90% of what you need. Share the media from the existing tanks (need to have been running for several months) and your new tank to speed up cycling of the new tank.

 

[arobinson1984]

Agree with JMKgreen here, although I'd probaby say the filter has 99% of the beneficial bacteria, the gravel and water although containing traces of bacteria will do absolutely nothing to cycle a tank.

If you have some established tanks already then I'd recommend taking about 1/3 of the media out and putting it in the new filter, this should kick start the cycling process.

Andy

 

[jmkgreen]

Be interesting to get a picture of what percentage of the bateria lives where, actually. I have been told by a experienced fishkeeper in the past that if you can't get filter media to get matured gravel as this may prove worthwhile.

 

[rdd1952]

Gravel will work if the tank it comes from has an undergravel filter as the gravel then is the filter media. Otherwise, gravel, decor, water, etc from an existing tank are pretty much useless in the cycling process.

If you have 3 tanks running now, just take part of the media from an existing tank and jump-start the filter on the new tank. Even when I do that though, I still fully cycle it with ammonia but it only takes a few days. Since you have a good bacteria base to start with, you can do a fishless cycle in less than a week usually.

 

[OldMan47]

The bacteria that we want to encourage to grow in our tanks will grow on any surface that gets good water circulation and is receiving oxygen with that water. The place that best fits that set of conditions in most tanks is in the filter but the substrate and all ornaments and plants also are surfaces with decent circulation of oxygenated water. Those surfaces can also be a rich source of the correct bacteria to jump start a cycle. Even the glass tank itself has a part of the bacterial colony in your tank and if you could somehow place part of it into a new tank it would help get things started. The fact that we focus our attention on the filter does not mean that it is the only part of a mature tank that can be used to jump start a new tank, it is just the easiest part of a tank to use to get a new tank's cycle started. Estimates vary from around 10% to upwards of 30% of the bacterial colony in a mature tank existing on things outside of the filter. The easiest for most of us to use is the filter media but the rest of the available bacterial colony should not be written off as useless. That part may be all that a person can obtain and it has a significant value in establishing a new tank's cycle if it is used properly.

 

[rdd1952]

I agree with Oldman47 but as far as bacteria on the substrate or gravel in a non-UGF tank, any beneficial bacteria on the gravel will definitely be right on the surface as that's the only place there is any water flow. Items nearest to the filter intake would be the ones most likely to house bacteria. I would think that the number would be closer to 10% than 30% though and even if there is 20% elsewhere in the tank, It's unlikely you would be able to move enough items over to make much of a difference. Once you figure how many surfaces (tank glass, plants, decor, filter housings, heaters, substrate, etc.) there are in the tank for bacteria to be on, you would have to move most all the decor to have enough to amount to anything.