crab escaped from fishtank!!!!

[angel]

Wow he lived all that time without water or food? Amazing!

[kimberlie]

well so much for that one of the peacocks jumped out & committed suicide..... so ive only got 1 peacock and the big dinosaur eel left

[Jess Puff]

Aug 30, 2009 22:04:15 GMT -6 jon carman said:

You can cycle it automatically if you put water, substrate, and use a little of the filter material out of your other tank. No waiting or cycling. I just wouldn't overload it too fast. All I do is move a used sponge filter, use a little old water and add fish.

Jon,

Is this still true? I used about 15 gallons from my established 75 gallon and included several hands full of substrate to my new 75 gallon. I haven't moved a sponge filter over or anything. I should probably do that and then test the water. When I test the water, what exactly am I looking for again? I want nitrates right?

[allierw]

Jess, your beneficial bacteria are primarily located in your filter media. I always use fresh water when starting a new tank, but move over a filter that has been running at least 2 weeks from an existing tank. You can also put media in a mesh bag and suspend that in your tank to help. When you test the water, you are looking for 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and then <20 ppm nitrate. Nitrates may vary. Mine has 10-20 just coming out of the tap water. Using a dechlorinator like Prime also helps, since it detoxifies ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

[Jess Puff]

Using this method, how long would it take to cycle?

[allierw]

Moving a filter over is basically an instant cycle...like Jon mentioned, you may not want to load it up really heavy at first, but you want to add enough to keep the bacteria going.