Filed under: aquarium fish tanks
New tank syndrome, or ammonia toxicity kills so many fish, that I felt it important to make this video. The dirty brown bacteria filled water from tank filters is actually the most vital biological part of any fish tank. You can move these bacteria from tank to tank and avoid the weeks of acclimation usually needed to ‘cycle’ a fish tank.
Duration : 0:3:26
if thats how you …
if thats how you make your chocolate milk, i would hate to be you!
LOL, me too.
…
LOL, me too.
Also, kids… make sure not to dump REAL chocolate milk in your aquaria…
If my chocolate …
If my chocolate milk looked like that, I’d be asking some questions…
Seemed to work …
Seemed to work right away for these fish!
Not too bad, …
Not too bad, there’s ways to save energy (space heater in the room)
Actually no, as you …
Actually no, as you can see, these fish are fine and reproducing…
whats your monthly …
whats your monthly electricity bill ? lol
Of course not …
Of course not typical but they will still need some time to build up enough to handle the bioload of the fish.
You’re correct.
…
You’re correct.
But there wont be a typical cycle when the bacteria are alive and eating nitrogenous waste immediately.
Your not cycling …
Your not cycling the tank your only seeding it to cause the cycling process to speed up.
Revising the last …
Revising the last sentence, you don’t need that many handfuls of substrate if you have a very large aquarium. One must understand that any quantity of bacteria introduced will multiply, so the more bacteria you introduce the shorter you have to wait for the bacteria to manage all the ammonia and nitrite. If you don’t have a lot of substrate, one handful will be okay, but I would recommend adding some sponge too.
I agree. If you …
I agree. If you can do this, this works best… mainly because you have the bacteria on the filter for sure.
But I haven’t had any troubles with that quick and lazy approach I showed in the video, so I’ll probably continue to do a mix of the two techniques.
oops… should add …
oops… should add more to that last sentence!
Take the waste and decorations out and put them in the new tank! Leave a little behind for him of course.
Well, outside of …
Well, outside of finding some old filter material from someone else’s tank, you COULD do the fishless cycle.
But you dont need to buy pure ammonia. Decaying fish food or feces will start the cycle. Heck, next time you do a water change on the Betta, take most of his water and even decorations out. They’ll not only have waste, they’ll have some good bacteria too.
i have a 3 gallon …
i have a 3 gallon tank with a betta and moving it to a 20 gallon tank (i’ll add other fish too) but the 3 gallon tank doesnt use a sponge filter…so i dont think i can cycle the way you did..i suppose i’ll do the fishless cycle do you know where i could buy pure ammonia? i cant find it anywhere..
ha, thanks. that’s …
ha, thanks. that’s only half the room! Dream it, do it fishballs!!!
A more effective …
A more effective transfer of bacteria from the established tank is to either take a chunk of sponge from the established tank and put it into the new tank or put a bigger, new sponge into the established tank at least 2 weeks before starting the new tank to allow bacteria to colonize the new sponge. Then when you start the new tank transfer the new sponge to the new aquarium. If the new tank will have the same or similar substrate, just transfer 1 handful of substrate/ gallon to the new tank.
woahhh so many fish …
woahhh so many fish tanks! thats sick my dream home
hmmm… dwarf …
hmmm… dwarf puffer aggression has to be considered, kind of a complex case there.
But if they’re really small, you can probably throw in a couple in just a couple days. Still keep an eye on the ammonia levels. heck… start a thread on our site, this is too long of a post!!! LOL
snails and dwarf …
snails and dwarf puffers?
put that same ‘ …
put that same ‘healthy’ amount that I did. You still want to add fish slowly, especially in a 10 gallon. Kind of depends on species…. feel free to post more questions here or at our website.
how long should i …
how long should i wait to start putting in tropical fish after pouring the water from the sponge?
and how much of the sponge water should i put in for a 10 gallon tank?
thats what i …
thats what i thought : )
I think it’s …
I think it’s actually better to do it that way, that is what I usually do.
mmm, most people …
mmm, most people just sit an older filter in the new tank, not the waste product…i guess its the same trick though