Seeded Filter Material

[Loughrea]

If you have a seeded filter sponge from an established tank,
how long does it take to cycle a new tank with it?

Thanks for any help.

I have some Cory's I need to move.

 

[Tolak]

The couple of fishless cycles I did with mature filter media took 7 to 14 days. I think much of it depends on the amount of media used to how many gallons the tank is.

 

[Loughrea]

Thanks,

1 small sponge from a Aquaclear 30, in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[DarkEntity]

10 Gall is tiny so probably after a week...obviously though check your water prior to doing any fish adding.

 

[Loughrea]

Thanks for the information guys.

I have some Corys that need to be moved.
They have started laying eggs in my
community tank.

Can't wait 6 - 8 weeks to move them.

So I need this tank to cycle as fast as it can.

 

[zoekin8yg]

my 28litre tank has some mature media in and its been 2 weeks its not quite ready yet, but I didnt put a huge ammount in

 

[andyt_uk]

its a long time since i cycled a tank, but surely the speed of cycle depends on the bio load the seeded media came from, and if you dont maintain that bioload the good bacteria will quickly die making the use of seeded media pointless.

so if you took half the media from an established 30g tank with X number of fishies that media can instantly sustain the bioload of approx X/2 [similar] fishies in a similar sized tank...

faiure to do so will render the good media useless and a full cycle will have to be done....

certainly thats how i did my last cycle and never saw any bad spikes at all ....
its the same principal as using your existing media to seed a new filter - you dont have to remove all your fish while your new filter cycles do you?

yours... Andy (ready to be flamed) T