Starting A New Filter Using An Old Tank

[ShinySideUp]

I have bought a new Tetratec ex700 filter, now I am wondering if I can use it in tandem with my existing fish tank to start up the bacteria colony for a few weeks then move it to a new tank setup. I know it will work in principle but will it be depriving the existing bacteria of nutrient in the old tank so that when I remove the new filter, the old one will no longer have enough bacteria to keep the old tank healthy? Also, how will I know when the new filter is ready? Any ideas?

 

[Ruskull]

What a coincidence, I have a similar problem. My 36 gallon was running fine for almost a year with a hang on back Penguin 200 but I wanted to upgrade to a canister type filter. Since I needed to replace a filter on one of my 20 gallon tanks I decided to upgrade the bigger tank & "trickle down" the bigger HOB filter to the 20.

To make a long story short I found a supposedly cycled Rena XP3 filter used on craigslist and I snapped it up, put it on my 36 gallon & moved the Penguin 200 to the smaller tank. Big mistake. Even though I prepped the canister with some of the media from the broken filter the tank still got a significant spkie of ammonia. Nitrite is steady blue but the ammonia read about .5 ppm as of last night. I panicked & did a 50% water change, and added more nasty media to the canister & fired it back up. I'm going to test the tank again right after I eat dinner. If necessary, I'll do another water change & add even more media from the 2 smaller tanks I'm running.

I don't know if this helps you or not but at least know you aren't the only one

If I had known this would happen I wouldn't have upgraded.

 

[Dazzler666]

How about splitting your used media between the old & new filters which will allow goid bacteria to re-colonise on both filters?!
Hope this helps!!

 

[ShinySideUp]

How about splitting your used media between the old & new filters which will allow goid bacteria to re-colonise on both filters?!
Hope this helps!!

No, can't do that as there is nothing in my new tank setup yet. The idea is to ADD the new filter to my old tank so there are TWO filters running in the one tank, then, after suitable amount of time, take the [now] fully-cycled new filter and attach it to my new tank setup at the same time as adding water and new fish, leaving my old tank with it's original filter.

 

[Ruskull]

Sounds like you have a good plan.

Incidentally, I'm happy to announce my tank has now recovered! It's tested perfect yellow for ammonia & perfect light blue for nitrite for a few days now............that was some scare I tell ya!

 

[mhancock]

The fish will produce a set amount of ammonia therefore only support a fixed amount of bacteria.

Over time, the original bacteria would therefore be spread equally over both filters (assuming same surface area in both). This means that when you remove the new filter, the old one will only have half the bacteria which will lead to cycling spikes.

Maybe just put the new one in for a short period of time, then you are only removing a smaller percentage of bacteria to avoid problems in first tank but will have enough bacteria for a couple of fish in the new tank.

Then you can gradually stock the new tank

 

[Petie]

Could you not remove say a quater of the media from the ild filter into the new filter

Then but the new filter in an unused tank/bucket if need be then leave that running and dose it with ammonia to build up the new filter colony

 

[coldcazzie]

How about splitting your used media between the old & new filters which will allow goid bacteria to re-colonise on both filters?!
Hope this helps!!

No, can't do that as there is nothing in my new tank setup yet. The idea is to ADD the new filter to my old tank so there are TWO filters running in the one tank, then, after suitable amount of time, take the [now] fully-cycled new filter and attach it to my new tank setup at the same time as adding water and new fish, leaving my old tank with it's original filter.

I think he meant when you set up the new tank, seed the tetratec with media from your other filter. Then stock lightly immediately, job done

Failing that, to answer your original question, yes, you can run filters side by side while the new one cycles and then move it to a new tank. It takes 4-6 weeks for it to have an effective colony in it. Then you would stock lightly immediately in the new tank, job done.

My personal preference would be to seed it. Because running an extra filter for a month is a month worth of electricity that you don't need to use, and the end result is the same - you still have to stock lightly and monitor levels etc.

 

[ShinySideUp]

I received my new filter and realised that to set it up in the old tank only to move it some weeks later to the new one would be a right pain in the #14###. Today I bought some ammonia and spiked the water with that and when I clean the old tank tomorrow I shall take a bit of the established filter material and put in the new filter. I would expect to be able to start adding fish within two weeks using this method.

Had a bit of a job getting ammonia and found it in my local hardware shop in the end. I calculated the amount to be 4ml per 100 litres of water and after adding and testing I was spot on to achieve a reading of 4ppm (because the ammonia content is listed at 5 to 9.5% so I called it 10% and went from there), which I believe is the about the right level. It's quite amazing to think that such a tiny amount of ammonia (and you only realise how tiny when it's in a testube on it's own) would kill fish outright in a very short time.

 

[Ruskull]

Ah, the wonders of science.