Cycling using rock from turtle tank?

[redinfinity]

Hi guys,

I'm new here, starting my first tank soon. I'm gonna be ready to start cycling the tank next week once my filter comes in.

I was wondering, I had a turtle for over 10 years and had a rock inside his tank for about 5 years or so. I was curious to see what the water was like in his tank, if it had the bacteria I need for the aquarium. I decided to check the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in the turtle's water, and my readings for each were through the roof!

So my question is, how can I get the bacteria into my new tank? Should I just place the rock in there? Or buy a pack of biomax and stick it in the turtle tank for a week?

 

[JAFRIAS]

your rock probably is cycled already, your waste is thru the roof ,a proper filter consist of more rocks / gravel

 

[redinfinity]

So can I stick this in my new tank to seed it? Or stick in some biomax in the turtle tank for a bit and transfer it to my filter in my new tank?

I'm mostly worried about any disease - can't really tell if there's anything bad for fish in there, but the turtle has been doing great.

 

[Toby_H]

If your turtle tank has ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings, I do not think you should consider it "cycled" or "mature" and therefore would not trust removing items from it to cycle a new tank...

BioMax is a type of media that houses bacteria... it does not supply bacteria to a new tank. The bacteria has to already exist in the new tank, the biomax media is just a place for it to live...

I suggest you treat both tanks like uncycled tanks and follow one of the several cycling methods (fishless cycling, with fish cycling, jump start with mature media, jump start with additives, etc).

 

[redinfinity]

If your turtle tank has ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings, I do not think you should consider it "cycled" or "mature" and therefore would not trust removing items from it to cycle a new tank...

BioMax is a type of media that houses bacteria... it does not supply bacteria to a new tank. The bacteria has to already exist in the new tank, the biomax media is just a place for it to live...

I suggest you treat both tanks like uncycled tanks and follow one of the several cycling methods (fishless cycling, with fish cycling, jump start with mature media, jump start with additives, etc).

That wasn't what i was getting at. I was asking if i could stick the biomax in the turtle tank for a while, let the bacteria colonize it, then put it in my filter in my new tank.

Regardless though, I'm going to follow your advice and just cycle the new tank fishless w/ ammonia.

 

[Toby_H]

That wasn't what i was getting at. I was asking if i could stick the biomax in the turtle tank for a while, let the bacteria colonize it, then put it in my filter in my new tank.

Regardless though, I'm going to follow your advice and just cycle the new tank fishless w/ ammonia.

Oh... I gotcha...

Personally... I think the fishless cycle is going to be the safest bet... Feel free to add a rock or something from the turtle tank to help get things started. I wouldn't expect an "instant cycle" by any means but it might save you a couple days in the overall process...

I am also curious as to why your turtle tank isn't mature/cycled. If you want to explore that a bit I'd be glad to help you try to figure it out, as severals others are too I'm sure...

If interested let us know some detail abotu it and we can put our heads togeter and see what we come up with...

 

[alcohologist]

would you be sticking the biomax in the turtle tank's filter, or straight into the water? dumping it in wouldnt help much with the bacteria colonization.
go ahead and do this

I suggest you treat both tanks like uncycled tanks and follow one of the several cycling methods (fishless cycling, with fish cycling, jump start with mature media, jump start with additives, etc).

could use the rock for this part. it'd be a slight help.

 

[redinfinity]

Ah, sorry, i should have clarified more. The turtle tank has no filter, all that's done on it are regular water changes. There's nothing but the single rock in the tank. Has been like that for the 10 years we've had it. It's actually my mom's turtle - she does 100% water changes and "scrubs" the rock every once in a while, which may explain why the tank has never cycled this entire time.

I was just curious to see if the bacteria was present in the tank but didnt know how safe it would be to just plop the rock in my new aquarium to jump start a cycle.

Thanks for the responses so far guys.

 

[Toby_H]

No more reason to wonder why the turtle tank isn't cycled, lol...

Just so ya know... I've toyed with turltes a bit and the turtle pros suggest that ammonia is very bad for turtles... not quite as bad as it is for fish, but pretty bad. By letting ammonia build up your mom is probably shaving years off the turtles life. Just be delicate about how you word that if/when you tell her

This is a pretty friendly / helpful turtle forum I've gotten some great guidance from - http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/upload/index.php?act=idx

 

[redinfinity]

No more reason to wonder why the turtle tank isn't cycled, lol...

Just so ya know... I've toyed with turltes a bit and the turtle pros suggest that ammonia is very bad for turtles... not quite as bad as it is for fish, but pretty bad. By letting ammonia build up your mom is probably shaving years off the turtles life. Just be delicate about how you word that if/when you tell her

This is a pretty friendly / helpful turtle forum I've gotten some great guidance from - http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/upload/index.php?act=idx

Thx for the link, I will let her know