Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

So, I am in the process of cycling a 65 gallon tank. It has plenty of ammonia however... The tank is taking forever to kick over to start developing Nitrites. So here is the deal, I have access to my daughters Gold Fish aquarium that has been running for a few months now. All the gold fish are healthy. I was curious i know goldfish do not do well in tropical settings however I would like to transplant a filter pad from her tank to my tropical tank.

Is there any risks of disease that i should be aware of that may cause a problem?

Is there any BAS Members in beverly ma that would like to give me their old filter pads from a healthy tank to help seed mine?

Let me know.

Mike

Yeah, goldfish are known to transmit diseases to tropicals, it's one of the main reasons people suggest they be kept seperately.I'm not enough of a pathologist to know if it's in the filter, but I usually take the media and wave it around in the tank that needs seeding. This gets the bacteria-rich mulm and bacteria in there, and it gets caught in your media if you do it near the filter. Alternatively, Lovely Pets sells both dry and refridgerated liquid bacteria.

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Trying to concentrate on dart frogs, African cichlids and Aphyosemion killifish (oh, and mysnake pair and reef too). I've always got something for sale, PM.

Dead Bacteria in a bottle, doesn't work. Even Seachem's Version of it *Stability* Does nothing

No, it's live refrigerated bacteria, not an ammonia stabilizer.

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Trying to concentrate on dart frogs, African cichlids and Aphyosemion killifish (oh, and mysnake pair and reef too). I've always got something for sale, PM.

Where is this miracle mix sold in stores?

Go to the refrigerator on top of the freezer, which is to the left of the counter, in Lovely Pets. It's not "miracle mix", it's just dormant bacteria. It claims to cycle instantly.

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Trying to concentrate on dart frogs, African cichlids and Aphyosemion killifish (oh, and mysnake pair and reef too). I've always got something for sale, PM.

Of course there's no guarantee, but as long as your goldfish are healthy, the odds are reasonably low that you'll introduce diseases into your new tank, so I'd say that if you'd rather not invest in the commercial bacteria preparation, you could just do the filter pad thing. It should probably take a week or two total for the nitrites to show up. Of course, it's important to have good water circulation to help get the bacteria going.

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BAS member

I wouldn't worry about seeding the new tank w/material from the Goldfish tank. Take a big hanndful of gravel and put it in the new tank. If it is a different color , put some in a filter bag and remove later. Use the filter pad too. I've experimented with many types of filters and have found the one's with sponges (i.e. Aqu@clear,canisters) cycle much quicker then others w/filter pads etc. I've modified some filters to contain sponges or more sponge.

Your always going to run the risk of introducing parasites/disease when transfering material from different tanks. I know Goldfish can have problems w/ parasites/flukes. However, many Tetra's and Barbs are suceptible to ick.and velvet. Discus to Hexamita etc.
The Goldfish tank being setup for a few months and the fish looking healthy is a big plus.

One last thing-I'm assuming the Goldfish are not 'feeder' fish. If they are, I probably would not
use anything from the tank.

I've cycled tanks using "stability" - and while it wasn't a miracle, it did cycle in about 1-2 weeks rather than a few months (and this was a heavily stocked brackish mudskipper tank that received 150% of the stock I had expected to be adding).

I've also used the new Tetra Safestart - which is a new non-refrigerated version of the Marineland Bio-spira (they are now owned by the same company).
Dr Tim H (formerly of Marineland and Aquarium Systems) developed the live bacteria formula (and is now selling his own version of it thru Dr Foster and Smith dot-com now that he's no longer with Marineland ).

Many many years ago I cycled a new 60-tank rack in a new LFS using Fritz-zyme #7, which also worked great for me (I don't know if its being made any more).

I refuse to say anything at all about Hagen Cycle. draw your own conclusions.

But I agree with Tom - if your goldfish tank has cycled (no ammonia no nitrite) and they are not feeders and they are not feeders and they are NOT FEEDERS (!) and they look healthy, you could just grab a handful of gravel.

Most of the time I just cycle my "new" tanks by moving over a sponge filter from an existing tank - just because I've used (and sold) most of the bottle bacteria doesn't mean I use them when I can save $5 and do it old-school (yeah I'm cheap and patient).

Or you could go with my really old school method - used graval (or dirty filter grunge) plus lots of zeolite in the filter to absorb ammonia from the water but put it right where the bacteria live

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Rich
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Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

Not to beat a dead horse but...............
I've had great luck w/Seachem products and always use Stability when setting up a new
tank. A handfull of gravel from an established tank along with driftwood,live plants (or fake),
rocks ,caves etc. Anything from an established tank will have nitrifying bacteria.
There is no doubt the Stability cycles the tank quicker. Like Rich , my new tanks will cycle in a week or two. However, I've never seen the numbers (ammonia,nitrates, etc.). I probably have not done any water testing for five years-90% laziness and 10% knowledge. I watch how the
fish act and how the water looks. Obviously, I'm not breeding Discus and its better to test the water. Also, its very important to stock a new tank lightly.


Tom

the refrigerated dormant bacteria are not guarenteed because I have heard horror stories about how hte bacteria didn't work because they died during shipping from being frozen or warmed up then recooled.

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Eric - Secretary/Bowl Show Chairman

Okay I'll bite. Why don't you like cycle?

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At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas.
Aldous Huxley