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I have an established tank and am setting up a new one.

If I put some of the decorations for the new tank into the old tank - how long will it take them to get good bacteria on them? A week? A few days? A month?

They always say to move gravel from an established aquarium into a new one, but my established aquarium is a very different color scheme from what my new one will be so I want to put some new gravel and decorations in the old aquarium and wait a bit THEN move them into the new aquarium.

Thanks very much for any advice or even educated guesses!

Melissa

I never had much luck with using decorations to seed a tank. They don't seem to have anywhere near as much bacteria as the gravel or filter media. I run a sponge filter or put the sponge in my filter for a week or 2 then put it in the new tank. Also you can stick the gravel in a filter bag or in your new filter if it has an extra media compartment that way when your done you can just pull it out.

The biofilter takes 3-4 weeks to establish itself. By moving the decorations you're moving some of the bacteria.
You can place some of the gravel in a shallow bowl to be removed later, or in a pair of clean nylons. You can also move some of the filter material from the established tank to the new tank. Seeding the new tank with materials from an established tank will help but you'll still need to cycle the new tank. Be sure you start with hardy fish, and test your water for ammonia and nitrIte.

^_^ [hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"

By putting the gravel from an established tank into the new one, you don't have to leave it in there permanently, or even mix it in at all. It's only very temporary anyway. Like Babel said, a shallow dish will work, but an even better trick IMO is put some gravel in a pair of panty hose and hang it in the tank.

The best way to get new bacteria in a tank is the filter media though. If you're running similar filters, like AquaClears, you can just take one sponge and move it over. I keep an extra cheap sponge filter running on my 15 gallon community so that if I have to set up a hospital tank or have an impulse buy or something, I have something to help cycle.

Like mentioned, stick with hardy fish, like danios or something, until your levels balance out. Keep a close eye on that water, and good luck.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Great Advice - thanks for creative ideas.

I will look into moving the filter sponge and/or some gravel-in-a-bag... those sound like good options.

Good of you to ask - I do test my water regularly and am just putting two 1.5-inch fantail goldfish into a 20 gallon, so they are a hardy breed and are currently tiny enough to not be crowded at all. Even so, I will cycle!

Much thanks for quality advice.

Melissa

Last edited by melissamorris at 15-Feb-2005 12:13

Melissa,

When I start a new tank, I add the new filter to an existing, cycled tank for two or three weeks. I then use the new, fully seeded filter on the new tank. It cuts cycling time to almost no time.

A caution with this method is that the new filter should not be a straight mechanical filtration system. Choose a filter that has substantial bio-media, whether sponges, balls, rings or sintered glass.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I've been doing the same thing Bob Wesolowski mentioned for all my new tanks. A second caution is that even though the filter is seeded thats not where all the bacteria live, alot lives in the substrate as well. So even with a fully colonized filter I'd still suggest stocking lightly and slowly for the new tank . Better safe than sorry IMO.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"