Establishing 2nd tank

[bluemerlin]

My 46 gallon tank is ideal for breeding and now I've had babies twice.

I would like to establish a 2nd tank to quarantine them should it happen again.

Can I accelerate the cycling by transferring items such as artificial plants, gravel and stones from the established tank?

[jonah]

Originally Posted by bluemerlin @ Sat Jan 29, 2005 12:56 pm

Can I accelerate the cycling by transferring items such as artificial plants, gravel and stones from the established tank?

Yes. Moving some of the media from the original filter to the new filter will work too. Or you could run an extra sponge filter in your tank so you can just move it to the new tank when you need it.

[DavidDoyle]

Adding filters to a tank does not increase the size of the bacteria colonies, it will spread them out. The colonies always size to the available food source. The bateria live on all the hard surfaces in a tank with the greatest concentraion where the best source of food and oxygen occur (ussually the filter).

I suggest you move some gravel/decor/filter media from the estanblished tank as seed material for a fishless cycle.

[jonah]

Originally Posted by DavidDoyle @ Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:36 pm

Adding filters to a tank does not increase the size of the bacteria colonies, it will spread them out. The colonies always size to the available food source. The bateria live on all the hard surfaces in a tank with the greatest concentraion where the best source of food and oxygen occur (ussually the filter).

It does provide an easy to move source to jump start you bio filter though, which is the whole point of using an extra sponge filter.

[bluemerlin]

I use a bio-wheel and I'm very impressed with it. I did think of running a second bio-wheel to start a colony to transfer across, but David's comments about colony size are interesting. I think I'll start from scratch with a few items from the established tank to get it going.

Thank you both for your comments. You have confirmed what I thought but needed to check to be sure.

[maxpayne_lhp]

Well, if you're sure that the water in your established tank is OK (free from disease) pour some into this new, too!
G'luck!

[(RC)]

Running a 2nd sponge filter in your old tank is a great way to get a jump start on your 2nd tank. The extra sponge filter will get a good colony of bacteria going so when you move it the 2nd tank will have good start, but if the 2nd tank doesn't have a source of ammonia the bacteria will die off.


RC