New Member! Hey There!

[Eloise]

Hi,

So, I'm new here. I'm a 23 university student, living in Montreal, Canada. I've currently got two tanks, a 40 gallons one that I've had for about a year and a half, and a brand new 130 gallons one. In the past, I've had a 15 gallons and my first ever tank was a 10 gallons. I've always kept severums, as I think they look nice and they're hardy. Beside, they grow large!

My boyfriend has recently gotten much into fish keeping too, that's why he helped me afford my latest addition... See, he has picked for himself a blood parrot one year and a half ago and he fell in love with it! I would probably have not picked that kind of fish now that I know it's an hybrid, but we didn't know what it was back then. Still, our blood parrot is lively and fun to watch, and he has grown quite large. I don't have any problem with him.

I've currently got two severums, a clown loach, 5 small cories and one plecostomus gibbiceps. I've only started my new aquarium may the 23rd, so all of my fish are still in the 40 gallons tank. Yes, that's a lot, but so far, beside some aggressivity and stress problems, everything seem well. No nitrite, no ammonia. Soon, once my new aquarium will have begun to cycle, I'll start transfering the fish.

I'm currently looking for tips on how to quick start my new aquarium (I've always had huge cycling problem when I started new aquariums - no death, but off-the-charts ammonia and nitrites...), how to make it nice and cozy for my fish, which one to add, and what to do with my good old 40 gallons one.

 

[lilfishie]

run the new filter along side you old one in your 40 gal, this will allow some of the bacteria to build up on the filter, then run the filter in your new tank maybe move some of the water over too, then test until the stats are all good

 

[Eloise]

run the new filter along side you old one in your 40 gal, this will allow some of the bacteria to build up on the filter, then run the filter in your new tank maybe move some of the water over too, then test until the stats are all good

That's a pretty good idea. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks! I'll try it!

 

[Jozlyn]

Firstly

You'll find loads of useful advice in here. The link below will tell you all you need to know about cycling a new tank.

http/www.fishforums.net/Fishless-Cycling-t113861.html

The biggest benefit of doing a fishless cycle is that you can pretty much fully stock your tank as soon as it is cycled, by cloning the filter you will have to add your fish slowly over an extended period of time to ensure that your filter bacteria have sufficient time to build up inbetween stockings.

I wouldn't bother adding any of your other tank's water to your new one as there's very little evidence that there are any beneficial bacteria living in the water. They live in the filter.

Cloning your filter is also a quick way, if possible take some of the filter media from your existing filter and add it to your new filter, this will speed up the process. However, if you run the new filter in your main tank check to make sure you don't have a mini-cycle when you remove it as you'll be removing a portion of the bacteria dealing with the bio-load in that tank when you remove the filter, you'll only ever have enough bacteria to deal with the existing bio-load, simply adding another filter will not create extra bacteria if there is not sufficent waste products to keep them alive.

Hope that makes sense!

Good luck

 

[pacuboy]

run the new filter along side you old one in your 40 gal, this will allow some of the bacteria to build up on the filter, then run the filter in your new tank maybe move some of the water over too, then test until the stats are all good

Yeah, I agree thats a great way!! HelloEloise and welcome to tff.com.