Need advice on new 65 gallon setup!!

[Mbielek]

Hello, so ive recently purchased a 65 gallon tall. Its been running for about 4 days. New filter on it, but right away i put a filter pad from an established tank that i have running. I also added a bacteria supplement to the water. Plan to move the entire existing filter to this tank when its time to add fish, and i just put in all the substrate/plants from the established tank into the 65. With a master test kit by API, i tested the water parameters today and the PH is about 7.2, ammonia at 0ppm, Nitrite at 0ppm, and some Nitrates. I know a fishless cycle may take weeks, but when am i okay to add my fish to the new tank? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

-Mike

 

[piranhaman00]

What you did is called "seeding" a tank. I dont have experience with bacteria supplements, but adding a filter pad from an established tank as well as the substrate and plants will cycle the tank incredibly quickly. I would keep sponges from sponge filters in my sumps so that if I needed to quickly cycle a tank I could grab one of those.

I would say your fine to add fish after 4 days. I have used this method and cycled tanks overnight.

 

[Drstrangelove]

If you are going to move a mature "existing filter", you could have done that the first day and then added the fish.

What you want to be careful of is assuming that the filter (after the move) is 100% capable of handling your bioload. What I would do is to add the fish and then feed them sparingly for several days until I got tests back with zero ammonia, zero nitrites and an increasing amount of nitrates.

Then ramp up the food over another 2-3 days.

 

[Mbielek]

What you did is called "seeding" a tank. I dont have experience with bacteria supplements, but adding a filter pad from an established tank as well as the substrate and plants will cycle the tank incredibly quickly. I would keep sponges from sponge filters in my sumps so that if I needed to quickly cycle a tank I could grab one of those.

I would say your fine to add fish after 4 days. I have used this method and cycled tanks overnight.

Thank you so much for the reply! Glad to hear that ive sped up the cycle process.