Hey everyone, I just had a terrible travesty last night- my heater just killed off nearly all my babies in my 29 gallon- and I'm looking to downgrade in size. The tank is just too awkward to vac etc and thus I intend to take my biowheel and gravel, along with some of the water and transfer it to a 20 gallon. Here's the stupid question: do i need to cycle the new tank? It seems like no, because the bacteria is all there, but I do intend to completely rinse all the gravel (while i have the chance!) so my bacteria bed may be lost. Will it? Should I not rinse the gravel and just dump it all into the new tank? Thanks!
Pre-existing media- New tank
- Thread starter zinful
- Start date
If you rinse the gravel (or any of the filter media), you might get a mini-cycle (spikes in ammonia or nitrite), but otherwise, you should be OK. So, no, you wouldn't have to cycle the new tank. However, if you have a heavy fishload, it's a lot more risky. You will need to check the parameters for the first week or so anyway.
If you really have to rinse the gravel, using dechlorinated water will help preserve the bacteria to some extent.
If you really have to rinse the gravel, using dechlorinated water will help preserve the bacteria to some extent.
Your gravel contain very little nitrifying bacteria compared to filter media. So rinsing them would not put your tank into a mini cycle. Just don't sinse the filter media.
Even if you have high bioload and a small lost of bacteria will not put your tank into long mini cycle. Since the bacteria colony is already present, it would take less than 24hr to go through the mini cycle and any fish should be abe to handle this without any problem.
Rohn
Even if you have high bioload and a small lost of bacteria will not put your tank into long mini cycle. Since the bacteria colony is already present, it would take less than 24hr to go through the mini cycle and any fish should be abe to handle this without any problem.
Rohn
