I'll Have My Tank Installed One Of These Days.....

[Dave L]

Hi all,

Some may be aware from previous posts I have a friend in the furniture manufacturing business who is building me a cabinet for my new 6 x 2 x 2 tank.

Well, in a post I made back in July it was going to be a couple of weeks, here we are at the end of the year and I'm still waiting.

Anyway, I have finally got a commitment that I will have it 2nd week of January. It's been a long wait but at long last it looks like it's going to happen.


This guy also has my External filter, a eheim 2180, running on on his aquarium for a few month now. So hopefully I should have the advantage of being ready to go quite quickly. I've have my substrate (eco-complete) sat in the garage ready along with everything else I need. It's been a frustrating wait. I will have most of the plants available on the day the tank is delivered.

After this long intro, my question is; should I stock up straight away with my filter that has been on an established tank for a number of months or start a fishless cycle process.

My feeling is to start the cycle but just wanted to make sure that in this case it wouldn't be a pointless exercise.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards

Dave.

 

[webber555]

Hi all,

Some may be aware from previous posts I have a friend in the furniture manufacturing business who is building me a cabinet for my new 6 x 2 x 2 tank.

Well, in a post I made back in July it was going to be a couple of weeks, here we are at the end of the year and I'm still waiting.

Anyway, I have finally got a commitment that I will have it 2nd week of January. It's been a long wait but at long last it looks like it's going to happen.


This guy also has my External filter, a eheim 2180, running on on his aquarium for a few month now. So hopefully I should have the advantage of being ready to go quite quickly. I've have my substrate (eco-complete) sat in the garage ready along with everything else I need. It's been a frustrating wait. I will have most of the plants available on the day the tank is delivered.

After this long intro, my question is; should I stock up straight away with my filter that has been on an established tank for a number of months or start a fishless cycle process.

My feeling is to start the cycle but just wanted to make sure that in this case it wouldn't be a pointless exercise.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards

Dave.

with the filter being from a different aquarium with a different bioload I'd still be inclined to test it out. If the filter is cycled, then it won't hurt putting in some ammonia (5ppm) - it should be cleared (as well as nitrites) within 12 hrs. If it can handle this consistently for a couple of days then you should be right to stock with fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, absolutely, you should behave just as if you were doing a fishless cycle except that probably you'll find right away that the filter is cycled and performing properly. By testing it at the 5ppm level, you'll also be taking care of checking if the colonies are large enough for whatever you want to put in.

If you put in 5ppm ammonia and find that both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) are cleared to zero ppm within 12 hours then you are essentially at the start of a qualifying week. Really, if if drops both poisons to zero within 12 hours for 3 or 4 days without a blip, you'd be fine to do a big water change and do your initial stocking.

I think you'll find that you'll have enough details about the tank or stocking/buying considerations that it'll be easy to be doing this qualification while attending to these other things.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dave L]

Thanks very much for the replies guys.

I thought that it may be the way to go but there's nothing like some reassurance from those with experience.

Many thanks for the advice once again

Regards

Dave.