Quick question on cycling

[renaelafae]

Hey,
My little dudes are growing fast and I'm setting up a 30gal I bought for cheap on craiglist (the breeder I bought my guys from said that a 10 gal was big enough for two, yea right ). I was wondering how long the new tank needs to cycle before my guys can hop on in? I'm putting the sponge filter from the old tank, bunches of old tank water, and most of the decorations into the new tank. I'm also setting up an additional filter (the uhm dual kind that uses charcoal too). From my research I've seen a wide range of time estimates, going up to 2 months. I'm hoping with the adjustments I'm making it'll take less time, as the other tank is getting a wee bit crowded. All and any advice is more than welcome as I am a newbie to aquatic beings (I've had a few other reptiles and amphi's though).

 

[Ed]

Since you are switching the active biofilter over to the new tank, you should monitor the tank as sometimes go a little off line due to the changes but the tank shouldn't have to recycle. The reason is because you are transferring one of the major locations in which the bacteria reside (unless you clean the sponge filter, but even then you should see a rapid cycle).

Ed

 

[yellowpebble]

if you do rinse the sponge filter make sure you rinse it in old tank water so the chlorine doesn't kill the bacteria. I had an amonia boom in a feeder tank once so i switched to a power filter with some of my other tanks cycled filter media in it. The ammonia stayed really high for about a day, then dropped to 0 over night, so it might take a a day or so for the new filter to work its magic, but it will be pretty much instant and well cycled whithin 24hours, allthough it would depend how big your tank is and how much ammonia there is in there to begin with.

 

[renaelafae]

Ed,
Awesome! That is so much better than having to wait for a month or so, I'm going to be visiting family in December and my husband will be in charge of the animals. So I'm thinking getting these buggers into a big tank requiring less daily initiative will be essential.
Thank you for the quick reply!

Rachel,
I'm storing the filter in a tub of old water from last night's water change while I set up the tank, hopefully later today or tomorrow. I won't rinse it (though I'm sure it could use it!), so hopefully it will be ready after the whole Thanksgiving visit with the in laws! Thanks for replying!