Media

[wingfeet]

hi all

I have bought a Juwel trigon 190 ltr aquarium.

It will be getting set up next week and I have been reading up on fishless cycling.

Now would I be better taking water from someone's established tank to kickstart the bacteria and leave it like that to run for a while?

 

[Tercio]

Hi Wingfeet,

The nitrogen cicle will take weeks to establish, 2-3 weeks, 3 weeks more often. With first an ammonia spike and a nitrite spike which are very harmful to your fish, you have to wait with introducing fish till after those spikes occur.

Adding water of an established will tank will do nothing, due to the fact that the bacteria live in the filter, substrate and decoration such as rocks or otherwise.

What you can do is squeeze the filter media of a friend, and all the muck what comes with it in a plastic bag with aquarium water and then pour it into your filter, this way beneficial bacteria of the established filter will be introduced in your system.

Don't forget that bacteria need decomposing fish food or fish waste to grow, so it is good idea to use some fish food in your aquarium in small amounts, this way ammonia will build up in your tank, and the nitrogen cycle works better.

When introducing fish, do it gradually, don't buy a lot of fish at the beginning, because the biological filter, your bacteria may not be able to adapt to a large bioload that brings with it, so gradually increase your fish population.

Good luck with your new tank.

Regards,
Tercio

 

[flchamp89]

Water holds little beneficial bacteria. Adding water from someone tank would only increase algae and disease opportunity.

You would want some of their bio media (sponge) not their water.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[wingfeet]

Thanks for the reply.

I read that after I posted about taking bacteria from the sponge so going to do that.

Thanks again

 

[Tercio]

Best thing to do, will accelerate the cycling, happy holidays and good luck with your tank.

 

[luca1980]

I would also not rely on using fish food as an ammonia source, it is very difficult to dose it accurately. A bottled source designed specifically for tank cycling is a much better/easier option.

 

[wingfeet]

If I take media from the filters would there be enough bacteria or would I need to add ammonia?

 

[Tercio]

Adding ammonia is something I have never tried out. Personally I would not do that.
Just let the bacteria multiply, don't let the ph get lower than 6 cause they don't like that and stop multiplying if I'm not mistaken.
Wait, have patience, by adding they bacteria of your friends aquarium you are not still there, it will speed up the cycling, but I would wait still. Do you have a test kit, to measure ph, ammonia and gh/kh. I would personally buy them just to be sure, beter some testing before adding fish.

 

[Tercio]

Sorry, forgot about nitrite, very important.

 

[Essjay]

Adding ammonia is something I have never tried out. Personally I would not do that.
Just let the bacteria multiply, don't let the ph get lower than 6 cause they don't like that and stop multiplying if I'm not mistaken.
Wait, have patience, by adding they bacteria of your friends aquarium you are not still there, it will speed up the cycling, but I would wait still. Do you have a test kit, to measure ph, ammonia and gh/kh. I would personally buy them just to be sure, beter some testing before adding fish.

If ammonia is not added, how will the bacteria grow? The only other way is by adding fish to make ammonia and this is not good practice and is cruel to the fish involved.

If the tank is to be heavily planted with live plants, then you can set up the tank, plant it and wait a few days to make sure the plants are growing - then add fish a very few at a time.

But if the tank won't be heavily planted, a fishless cycle using ammonia is the better method. There is an excellent write up on how to do a fishless cycle here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
Using mature media in the filter will make the cycle much faster.