Tropical Fish Forums

ant1 · Members Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Location: barnsley

as you probably guessed(by my previous posts)I have purchased a new filter etc.could I get away with just adding my mature bio media and some mulm from my old filter to avoid having to re-cycle my tank.the load will be small anyway with just two pristella's,1 peppered corrie and five black widow tetra's in a 40 gallon tank.

ant1 · Members Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Location: barnsley

wow some great feedback there guys cheers.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

Try here
Seventh point down. Smile

Zowie72

Bit frustrated huh...
I'm still learning myself, but when I did something similar with my 26 gallon, complete breakdown and clean of everything before rebuilding again, I too was hoping to avoid have to cycle again. I kept an eye on the water quality and although it didn't fully cycle I did notice a 'minature' version, ammonia and nitrite both rose a bit but it didn't last very long, all was normal again within a week or so. So I suspect you may see something similar, good luck.

edit: didn't notice diademhill's reply there, I was side tracked by my daughter whilst posting!

ant1 · Members Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Location: barnsley

thanks for that mate just the answer I was looking for.

thanks for the effective ear bashing diademhill's but after 18 pages I still did'nt find a topic that covered my rather simple question.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

You didn't find any reference to speeding up a cycle with used media?

ant1 · Members Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Location: barnsley

not really,I've been running a 40 gallon tank with a filter that is rated for a tank less than half the size which if you followed any of my previous posts you would have realised.I have actually been keeping fish for over 20 years with varied results and thought I'd finally join a forum.

I thought I'd overhaul my tank and dig a little further into the hobby that led me to this site.due to reading through a lot of info here I've upgraded my lighting to t5 spec,realised my filter was woefully inadequate and thought other than bogwood,rocks and random plants I'd go for a biotope set up.

its a great site,but as an apparent"newbie"getting a feel for the board some of my posts could have warranted a better response.

diademhill · Advisors Joined: 18 Apr 2007

Mid week on a holiday?

The boards are often quiet at these times.

Filter ratings are pretty meaningless on low stocked tanks. I'm running an 800 litre on a fluval 4 internal while the sump is being modified but there are only five fish to support.

Using old media in new tanks is standard practice as is running a spare filter.