tank cycling

[SunFire]

I have to transfere two fish into a bigger tank. I want to cycle the tank the fishless way but not the four week way. Could i possibly take water from the tank that they are in now and put it in their new tank? Or water from the filter?

Thanks!

 

[rdd1952]

If you can move a filter over or part of the filter from the existing tank into the new one, that will work. Using water from your current tank won't do any good as there are no beneficial bacteria in the water. Anything you can move over from one tank to the other will help: decorations, plants, substrate (put some in a bag and hang in the tank or lay it on the bottom) or filter media.

 

[SunFire]

ok thanks you. I will try that.

 

[Rodders]

Taking water from your already cycled tank will help.
Also, if you take substrate, put it into a tight (stocking, whatever they are called) and lay it so its in contact with the substrate in the new tank, this will let the bacteria migrate over much easier.
Take a piece of filter media from you cycled tank and put this into the filter media in your new filter. This will speed up cycling of the new tank a vast amount.

 

[Bignose]

Rodders, adding water from an established tank is not useless, but it really does not accomplish much. An overwhelming percentage of the bacteria are sessile, not mobile, and living in the biofilm that is on all the surfaces in the tank. Just taking water, you would only get that very very very rare bacteria that is mobile. That is why it is usually suggested to take substrate or decorations or live plants because those will have the biofilm on them. Also, unless the other tank is densely planted, there is probably nitrates in the established tank water and when the new bacterial colony starts its work, addiitonal nitrates will appear and those may reach a very high level.

Ass rdd suggested, you could purchase the new filter and just run it in the established tank. In about 7 to 10 days, it will have a significant amount of bacteria, but not quite enough for a fully stocked tank. You will have to add (transfer) somewhat slowly and monitor the water parameters. You will be able to go faster than cycling with fish, but not quite a full stock.