Setting Up

[beanyboy1982]

filled my tank with water an its now up 2 temp water has been in the tank 4 about a week now an i soaked the filter in the water off my other tank when i cleaned the filter in that will i have bacteara in that new filter now ? how long would u leave it before adding fish an is their anything else i need 2 do ?

 

[aaronc]

Hi Beanyboy.

Do you have test kits for ammonia and nitrite, you need to check these


Aaron

 

[mlawson]

You will have to do more to start your bacteria cultures than that.
Cycle your tank for a minimum of 2 weeks. Test for Ammonia, Nitrates
and Nitrites 2-3 times a week. Once your Ammonia and Nitrite readings
are at 0 then it is cycled.

To activate your bacteria you must supplement them with sorces of
Ammonia. You could add fish food or buy a filter bacteria starter culture.

For more info check out some of the pinned topics for begginers questions.

 

[beanyboy1982]

added fish food the other day my reading are these up 2 now
ammonia ---- 0
ph ----- colour is blue an its not on the chart
nitrate ---- was about 25mg/l
nitrite ---- aint tested yet

 

[bobbicus]

personally if i wanted to "cycle" another filter - i would run another filter simultaeneously and turn both the outputs (if able) down to minimum.........so to let established filter do it's job still and allow the new filter to be seeded

would run it for at least 4 weeks to be on safe side i would not wanna cause an un-necessary spike from being impatient.........then having to deal with the spike!!!

 

[beanyboy1982]

rite took a bottle of water 2 the fish shop an they tested it an said it was safe 2 put a cupple of fish in their so i have an their fine would it be ok to put the rest of the fish in their with the filter that i had in the other tank that they have all lived in ?

 

[beanyboy1982]

any 1