Cycling A New Aquarium

[SWilson]

Neat!  Man everyone gets cool hitchhikers lol.  I just "adopted" a clown pleco from a woman -- she brought home two of them attached to a plant she bought at a fish store!  the coolest hitchhiker I've gotten is an olive nerite snail.  otherwise it's just bladder snails, which I don't mind.  I just also wouldn't mind some free shrimp or plecos! 😋

[Tyler LaZerte]

Oh wow. Clown Plecos would be the hitchhikers I want! Haha

[Dan]

I have a 29g aquarium ran 2 sponge filters. Had 20 female guppies many neo shrimp and snails. It was set up for about 6 mo. When I set up a new 20g. I moved 1 of the sponge filters and all the female guppies. Never registered any ammonia. New tank has been going now for a little over a month.  No issues. With the seeded filter you may not see ammonia. 

[Tyler LaZerte]

@Dan That's great news! I'm glad your stock is doing well! 

[SWilson]

Actually that’s a great point @Dan the last two tanks I set up with seeded sponge filters and moved plants over from established tanks and was able to add some fish and snails right away with no ammonia. At most a slight nitrite bump in one of the tanks but was able to take care of it with a water change. 

[laritheloud]

That was going to be my question -- if the seeded sponge was handling the bioload of a stocked tank, shouldn't it also handle the bioload of a lightly stocked new tank, provided the bacteria colony is intact? You wouldn't see any ammonia or nitrite register if the bioload is not overwhelming the seeded colony.

EDIT: I would personally test it out by adding drops of ammonia to the tank and seeing what happens. I fishlessly cycled my tank with plants with pure ammonia, just don't dose past 1 or 2 ppm.

Edited May 18, 2021 by laritheloud