New tank, sort of a complex cycling question...

[flynngriff]

Hi everybody...

I'm setting up a 2 gallon fish tank on my desk at work, and my plan is to use substrate from one of my established tanks at home.

The 2 gallon tank is a eclipse with a bio-wheel. ****My question is this:

In my home tank, I use canister and wet-dry filters which both contain media for my bacteria to live in. ****Do I still have a useful amount of bacteria living in the gravel in that tank? ****Will using this gravel start my new tank fully cycled?

Also, if there is a solid bacteria culture in the gravel, how long will it take for that bacteria to begin growing on the bio-wheel in the 2 gallon set-up?

I'm 90% sure this is a good way to cycle my new tank, but I'm wondering how these things will affect the process.

I will certainly watch my water parameters closely to make sure it's fully cycled before adding fish, but I thought I'd ask the experts...

Thanks!

[Lexus]

For my 1G betta tank, I used the gravel from my established tank and then I also added water from the tank and my betta has been fine, thus I didnt need to cycle.

[Fishfirst]

it may go through a mini cycle... but I doubt it will be anything life threatening for your betta

[flynngriff]

Well, I was planning on doing a fishless cycle, but I realized I had all the bacteria I need in my tanks at home. I was just wondering if anyone knew how much bacteria grew in your substrate if you had better places for it to grow, like in your canister filters and bio-balls.

If your tank doesn't produce enough waste, I know some of your bacteria will die off, so I wasn't sure how much bacteria I was actually getting, ya know?

[MyraVan]

The bacteria grow on everyplace that it finds a good source of food, that is, ammonia & nitrite. More grows on the filter floss because there's a good flow of the chemicals that they eat going thought the filter. But even when you have a filter you'll have some on the gravel. So yes, adding gravel from your old tank can help jump-start your new tank.

But, this is important, you must feed the bacteria in their new home! If you don't, they will die. So pretty much immediately after putting the gravel in the new tank you must add a source of ammonia. That is, the betta, or else some ammonia to do a fishless cycle. And then the existing bacteria will live, and will propogate to get into your new bio-wheel.

So you can't use the gravel on its own to cycle the tank; it just makes either a fishless cycle or a cycle with fish much quicker, and much less hazardous to the fish if you go the fishy cycle route. Since you have a good colony of the bacteria are already there, much more of the toxic stuff will be broken down immediately rather than building up to really harmful levels before the bacteria grow enough.

[turtlehead]

your cycle is done.

[flynngriff]

Thanks, MyraVan... I am planning on adding ammonia to feed my bacteria before adding my fish. I haven't tried to jump start a cycle like this before, so I wanted to be very careful, and make sure it's stable before adding fish.