Hi everyone! I have a cycled (what I believe is a 20 gal) 20 gal tall tank with perfect parameters. 7 brilliant rasboras and one black orchid browntail crown tail betta. I’m wondering if I siphoned the water from my established tank into my 10 gal on the left, would I have to worry about cycling at all? Or, would it just really kickstart the cycling process? I’m completely willing to just do a normal cycle but I wanna save myself some extra time 😅 TIA!!
EDIT: browntail-> crown tail
Posted by mighty_meow_
30 Comments
No, the water doesn’t contain nitrifiers.
It will just barely make a difference starting the cycle, since very little bacteria is in the water column. You’d be much better off squeezing out the gunk from your filter into the new tank. That’ll seed a good amount of bacteria into the new one
It’ll help a little, but only a little of the beneficial bacteria is in the water column. If you have filter media or substrate in the other tank to spare, that will make the process much quicker.
Imo just doing the water wont really do much, I would instead use a piece of filter media from the established tank!
Not exactly. You’d have to seed the filter in the new tank with bacteria from the filter of the older tank. Might be simple or it might be rather hard depending on what you have in that HOB filter
Cycled bacteria lives on solid surfaces, not inside the water so no. It will be mainly in the filter but also on plants, logs, rocks, substrate, the walls of the tank.
Large part of cycling a tank is whats in the filter. You could squeeze it out or split the media in half and do 50/50 clean/dirty but honestly just start fresh
The water contains all the bad stuff like nitrates. The surfaces contain all the good stuff like nitrifying bacteria. You would need to put a rock and/or some filter media in the new tank to SEED a cycle. Its never instantaneous and you still have to be cautious when adding new fish.
If you can transfer some of the gravel, rocks, plants, or filter material from the established then you can do a fast cycle.
No, but you could move dirty filter media from the 20 to the 10 and that would allow you to start stocking the tank immediately.
Water contains very few beneficial bacteria, they form dense colonies on surfaces and
perform their magic there. If you do use old filter media, be aware that you are effectively lowering the bio filter capacity of the 20 gallon by the same amount you’re increasing the capacity in the 10 gallon. The best way to do this is to add bio media to the 20 about 30 days before you want to stock the 10; that creates a bacterial colony that is primed for growth without as large an impact on the 20.
If you want to go quickly, take no more than 25% of the 20’s filter media which would mean you’d be able to stock the 10 approximately halfway. Both tanks will experience bio filter growth from the existing colonies but ammonia and nitrite should be measured and small water changes performed as needed.
If you want to jumpstart the cycle a better way to do it would be to take filter media from your hang on back filter and put it in the new tank along with water from the old tank.
Also putting substrate from the cycled aquarium into the new aquarium will help too. I combination approach of cycled media, cycled substrate, and water should get you up and running in no time.
The water itself is close to irrelevant. It’s the filter medium that is important and which cycles. (And the substrate). What would help is adding a piece of the filter medium from the existing tank to the new tank. That would speed up the process.
To keep it simple:
Cycled filter + new tank = cycled tank
Uncycled filter + any tank = uncycled tank
You don’t cycle the tank, you cycle the filter. There are beneficial bacteria on surfaces and substrate, but the filter is the most impactful.
If it were me I’d transfer half the substrate and it will greatly speed it up but you still need daily ammonia/nitrite testing and a full cycle before fish go in
If you transferred enough water frequently enough and the bacteria in the old tank can handle the increased bioload, sure.
I’ve done this before but it’s a bit tedious even with water pumps.
Example:
Once a day I would pump out half of an uncycled 40 gal tank then pump 20 gal from my 125 to it. Then pump the original 20 back into the 125 gal. This requires a 3rd container.
I did something similar for my new tanks. I use a lot of sponge filters, so I took one from my old tank (that had 2), and replaced it with a new one. Then put the old one in the new tank. Cycled the tank a lot faster.
When I want to cycle a new tank quickly, I pull some plants, substrate, and hardscape from already established tanks to put in the new one. I also take one of my sponge filters (I have 2 in each tank), and use it to kickstart the new tank. I like to add Prime, Stability, and/or a capful of aquarium startsr bacteria too. Even then, I give it a week or two before I start adding fish and continue to closely monitor ammonia and nitrate/ite levels and change water as needed.
No, instead you should take the filter you plan to use for your new tank, and run it on the established tank (alongside the already cycled filtration) for a month or so, then use it to start the new tank
I always recommend, if you can, to run a small sponge filter in your tank aside from your main filter. Hide it in a corner and pretty much forget about it. If you ever need a second emergency tank set up, you will always have an established filter. If you cant run a small sponge filter, take some filter media and tuck that in a corner to seed it.
Take the media in the filter out and once the new tank has water in it, squeeze the filter from old tank in water. That will jump start the process.
No, what you have to do is put another filter on the cycled tank, let it run for a week or so, then you can transfer water and the filter.
No, use filter media and decor from old tank in new tank with bacteria
lol no necessary just take the filter out of the new old tank and squeeze it into the new one with the filter running. Should be cycled within 24 hours on a tank that small.
The water no. But you can half the sponge in your filter for example then both tanks will have established bacteria. It will still take a little while for bacteria colonies to build up in the substrate and surfaces.
most of the bacteria lives in the filter, in your substrate and on your hardscape/plants. there’s not much in the water column but it definitely can work if you take filter media from the tank and add it to the new one
Cycling means you have beneficial bacteria living in your substrates and the surface areas of your tank. Of course the water matters too, but substrates > water. If you have both, I would say much faster cycling. But I am not sure if I can say that is instant cycling.
Just hang the future filter of the the 10g on the 20g for a week or so. At least float the filter media in the established tank — the running filter is better though.
I am more interested in what kind of chasing you are tracking on this tank?
https://preview.redd.it/6cqqafllffdh1.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=5709669245e60c9277c34a8dbfa74ad95f11a1fe
If you squeeze the sponge out into the substrate of the new tank it’ll make a massive difference- someone who did that
No water doesn’t hold beneficial bacteria