Seeding a new tank

[Bradc]

Ive got some more tanks and i have excess internal filters.. how long after moving the internal filters that are established into a new tank will i be able to test the water to make sure its cycled the tank?

Do i add it and add fish food or ammonia and see if it processes the ammonia to nitrates? Im use to watching the whole process happening as i dont usually have excess filters lol so this will be a 1st. I've had the tanks filled with water for a week now leak testing them so that water i shouldnt have to add prime to or anything either would i as the chlorine etc would be gone by now.

[Link2Hell]

have the tanks been running with aeration ?

I like to run a new filter in an established tank first or will run a sponge filter for a week in a bucket

of water that I have cleaned sponge filters in then rinse off before putting in the new tank

I will use a Bio starter Aquasonic is what I have ATM

then its a matter of testing when you have the tank running with the filter

  MTS = multiple tank syndrome    the disease is strong in this one

 

[Bradc]

They have been in my display tanks for probably 6 or so months now for this reason. The tanks they are going into only have water in them and some terrible gravel that will be changed to either nothing or crushed coral substrate. The internals are to cycle the tank and ill be setting up a 120lph air pump to run 2 sponge filters in each tank. Internals are pretty well just to move water around instead of powerheads and so im able to move them in this instance to any new tanks i get lol..

Just wasn't sure if the so called instance cycle you would see on your tests especially having new water in it you would think everything would be 0ppm apart from ph and thats what my tap water reads and i didn't wanna loose all my fry ive been feeding up for weeks lol or even months for some of them..

I have some stability which ill use for the volume of the tanks they are an oversized 3fters which i think will work well.

And yeah it seems the syndrome is getting worse lol.. i do get a kick out this hobby haha.

[fishdance]

It doesn't matter how long your filters have been established. Beneficial bacteria are only active if there is enough food (bio - load) to support them before you move the filter. So moving an old filter into a new tank may not avoid the new tank syndrome problems, just reduce them. Even with mature active filters, if you suddenly doubled the bio load, you would get a mini spike until the beneficial bacteria could catch up.  

Don't underestimate the efficiency of biofilm as filtration. Having good substrate greatly reduces the reliance on an artificial filter unit and transfering active substrate over to a new tank speeds up the run in time greatly as its the colonisation of new surfaces that produces the 

[Bradc]

Yeah i understand all of this.

Im just worried as im adding a filter into absolutely clean water i wont be able to test to make sure the filter is doing its job.. im sure it will be when i cant see figures it makes me 2nd guess what im doing.

I was thinking of moving the filter and buying some pure ammonia and just adding 1 or 2 drops and testing to make sure the process does as its supposed to do. 

[Bradc]

Also id say nearly 40 3cm+ fry will be moving to this tank so bioload should be sufficient. Its a 36"×20"×20".

 

[fishdance]

With respect, I don't think you do understand "all of this" or you wouldn't be so worried. If your concerned about clean water then add some dirty water too.

Now that you have all the test kits, time to box them away and just let the fish tell you if anything is wrong. Watch the fish, don't look at them. They are constantly trying to communicate with you so start paying attention.