Jump starting to drop Ammonia levels

[kebuchan]

Hi all,

It's been about 10 days now, I had done water changes almost daily (80%) and the fish were looking great, Ammo was somewhere < 1 but it's not getting down to 0 in that 55g community tank. I have a couple of other established smaller tanks with 0 nitrites and ammonia. I order to increase the bacteria colony in the 55g with a jump start, I was thinking of:

1. Moving a handful of gravel from an established tank. How much should I move?

2. Moving java moss? Do plants carry any of that bacteria?

3. Can I float a new sponge in one of the good tanks and then move it over to the 55g in the hope of moving some bacteria? How long would a "new sponge" need to sit in an established tank for.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[JWright]

Could you take some of the filter media out of the established tanks? That would be the most effective way to "seed" the new tank.

Moving gravel and plants will help as well (plants especially, not because they have extra bacteria, but because they consume nitrogen products directly).

Floating a sponge in an established tank won't really help. The best way to "preseed" filter material is to run the new filter on an established tank for a couple weeks. That won't really help in your case, since by the time the filter is seeded, the tank would already be done cycling.

~JW

 

[kebuchan]

The established tanks have "different" types of filters. In one I've got a whisper power filter thing that has proprietary filter cartridges, the other is a smaller homemade sponge filter.

In my cycling 55g I have a fluval304. I guess I could take established sponge and put it in the fluval or float it.

Would the established tanks suffer at all without their established filter media?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[JWright]

Don't take all the established media out, but if you cut the sponge in half and shove half of it in the fluval, that would help.

 

[kebuchan]

Sounds good... Thanks JW. Will also add some plants, the only plants in the 55g are fake. I thought plants only helped with the nitrates, didn't think they were good for taking care of general nitrogen issues.

Kevin