Seeding A Tank

[zain611]

So i may go with the idea of seading my next 215l tank if i get it but do i have to put the sponge from my current filter in and what do i have to do with the fish or could i just squeeze the juice out

 

[techen]

When I read this I saw, "What do I do with the fish or do I just squeeze the juice out"

Which scares me

Cut your sponge in half and add it to the new tanks filter, Give it a few days and it will seed to the new sponges inside the filter.

Your other filter should be able to cope with it so long as theres extra media in there.

 

[fluttermoth]

Don't take more than a third of the media from your cycled filter, and replace it with a new piece of sponge.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Don't take more than a third of the media from your cycled filter, and replace it with a new piece of sponge.

 
+1
 
Cut one-third of the sponge out of the old filter media, and replace it with NEW to be colonized by the bacteria.  Under ideal conditions, your bacteria should be able to double their colony in about 24 hours.  This should be quick enough that the tank doesn't even show a bit of ammonia or nitrite after you take it out.
 
With the new tank... Add the OLD material to be the FIRST thing that the water hits and if any bacteria come free (unlikely) they will get a chance to be "caught" by the next layer.  The key is to get the "old" stuff into a good flow within the filter.  I assume you plan to do a proper fishless cycle on the new tank.  This will go MUCH quicker than unseeded, but such a large tank (capacity for a much bigger bioload) and such a small amount of bacteria will take some time for the whole thing to reach a fully cycled filter.  
 
My 110 gallon tank (shown below) took about a week to fully cycle through 3ppm - and that was after bringing 25% (more or less) of my filter media from my home tank (fully cycled, 18 month old 56 gallon tank/filter).  The ammonia turned over fairly quickly, but the nitrite took a little bit of time to catch up.  

 

[zain611]

Im nervous doing a fishless cycle firstly because i never tried it before and i might get the wrong product to cycle also my dad has a friend who is really well into fish keeping that he doesnt eat fish himself so if my dad asked him about cycling the next tank he probably will do what he says as hes really into fish and we'll never know if he says to do a fishless cycle or back braking fish in cycle which i just would go for it

I put some strips of my wool pad in as i thought it will act as the same purpose as filter floss so could this be used for seeding?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The right product is any ammonia product that has ingredients as follows:  water and ammonium hydroxide.  Anything else added and you aren't going to want it.
 
I'd add though, if your dad's friend is so into fish, you should have plenty of filter media to offer you as well to "instantly" cycle your tank.  Your new tank will have nearly 8 times the volume of your current tank, so you are going to need either plenty of time and a ridiculously small initial stocking, or time for a fishless cycle (again because the amount of bacteria you will be adding won't offer much at first), or a bunch more cycled media to be donated from somewhere else.   
 
ANY material from your current filter should be just fine for bringing some bacteria over.

 

[chokko]

per my other thread..i took a bag of ceramic rings and a 20cm square chunk of filter wool out of existing filter (for 42Gal tank) and put it into my new fx5 (top basket) for my new 92Gal tank.
The rest of fx5 baskets populated with new ceramic rings, few bio balls and more wool. dechlorinated water was used. temp at 30degrees. pH at 8.
 
Fishless, put 2ppm ammonia in. After a week... still no ammonia drop what-so-ever
 
gutted

 

[zain611]

Will try and see if my dad can tell is friend by text or person as he went work about what he did about cycling his tank

 

[DreamertK]

Both of my filters used ceramics, though my original ceramics were much larger than the newer filter could hold so I put maybe five good ones out of a bag of maybe 25 in and never had an NH3 spike (there was still trace for a day or two, less than .02ppm). I put both bags into a bucket I was using to hold my fish/plants while I was moving the tank and there was 0 NH3 the entire time. I bet I could have just dropped the bag in the new tank and it would have done fine as well.

If you've got fish that need to move, you could cut some of the sponge off and put it into the filter/tank let the fish feed the bacteria. That is, if the fish you're planning on putting in aren't that sensitive. I briefly moved some "hardy" fish into the new tank because I %&&*ed up my old tank while I was cleaning and was worried the dust would irritate their skin, but about 20 minutes or so later I saw that they had completely lost their color and gills were turning red so I spent another 20 minutes trying to catch them and move them back into the old tank. I tested the water and it was trace amounts of NH3.

 

[Royston]

I took some media out of my koi pond filter and added it to my sump.. Worked very very well