Making Mature Filter Media

[nero]

I just had a thought....

It seems that many people on these forums have already bought fish, not knowing about the nitrogen cycle, and now wish that they had cycled fishlessly. So my thought is; can you set up a bucket of water with some foam or filter media in it, and add ammonia to this, as if you were doing a fishless cycle, thus rapidly growing the desperatly needed bacteria faster than you can in your stocked tank. Then when the "fake" tank is "cycled" add the foam or media into your stocked tank or the filter.

Any thoughts on this? I cant see why it wouldnt work.

 

[heresmike]

Unfortunately, the formation of beneficial bacteria is not all that rapid, even when doing a fishless cycle. Faster maybe, but a fishless cycle will still take at least a couple weeks. Meanwhile, the fish are still going through the cycle in the un-cycled tank until the bacteria builds up in your bucket. Another thing to think about is that the water should be kept at a high temp to accelerate the bacteria growth, so if you're not in a warm climate, you'd need to use a heater in your bucket. IMO it wouldn't be a good solution, but you could always try it out and let us know.

 

[nero]

Hmmm, I suppose so.
BUT ; another idea.....

The ammonia in our tap water is about 1ppm (eek)
so what about keeping a tank as described, but using it to buffer the water used for water changes. The bacteria in the empty tank will deal with the ammonia in the tap water, taking some of the stress off the fish tank.
(this all seems to be getting more and more complicated...)

 

[jeffrey]

a LFS here has a tank set up with a whole bunch of the foams in it and some fish, they use it for hte sole purpose of getting hte foam established and then sell it.

they sell it for double the cost of the foam... and they are always running out.