# Cycling new tank



## BoSox65 (Sep 3, 2003)

*After posting this I saw the earler post on cycling and got some of my questions answered from it. Although I still am curious how long a mini-cycle take*s?

I just set up my new 100 gallon with 2 Emporer 400's. One of them has been 
running a while on another tank and has lots of bacteria while the other is fresh out of the box. I put some seeded gravel from an established tank in both of the gray cartridges as well as some seeded gravel in a nylon bag and put it in the newer filter. I also added about 10 pounds of gravel from an established tank and mixed it into the new gravel.
I am wondering how long it will take to cycle this tank using this strategy?
I have a bunch of feeders in there to spur things on as well. I am hoping that I will not have to go through an actual full cycling with the established filter and the old gravel. I am not running any underground filtration and have live plants in there too.

Thanks in advance for any advice.


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

It depends on the bioload you are putting in the new tank. If you have a small bioload (like a few feeders), chances are, you won't even see a glitch in your readings. Problems occur when people think that they can simply use some gravel or an estabished filter to instantly cycle a tank with a large number of fish.


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## BoSox65 (Sep 3, 2003)

So are you saying it would be safe to add my 9 0ne inch caribes to the new 100 and I will not have to worry about them going through a rough time?
Or are you saying that a few feeders will make the cycle take longer or are you saying that with the old gravel and old filter and a few fish that it will be safe for all fish, as long as there are not too many? if this is the case I have 9 1 inch caribes that I will be putting in here, I do not want to rush things by making them go through a cycle, I would rather wait for things to level off.


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## chomper (Sep 23, 2003)

put the old filter pads into the new emperor. That should speed things up.


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## soulfly (Aug 7, 2003)

BoSox65 said:


> So are you saying it would be safe to add my 9 0ne inch caribes to the new 100 and I will not have to worry about them going through a rough time?
> Or are you saying that a few feeders will make the cycle take longer or are you saying that with the old gravel and old filter and a few fish that it will be safe for all fish, as long as there are not too many? if this is the case I have 9 1 inch caribes that I will be putting in here, I do not want to rush things by making them go through a cycle, I would rather wait for things to level off.


 he was saying that sometimes people think by adding some established gravel and filter to a tank it will instantly cycle. the length of time it will take for your tank to cycle depends on the bio load you put in it. the more feeders the better because they will create a much bigger bio load then just a few.


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