The Puffer Forum

Got a new tank cleaned and am going to use my old filter temporarily in conjunction with the new filter and established sand. How long do I need to flow that old filter with the new one before the new filter has established bacterial colonies of its own.

And how long can myfish in my 60g do without their filter?

What brand models are the filters? Can you add the estblished media from the old filter in to the new one?

My established filter is a aqueon 70, my new one is a rena xp3 175g filter. ..i guess I can stuff the old sponge in the new one temporarily but i do need to place it back so I dont risk my established ecosystem.

As long as the immediate bio load is the same you should be fine. If you add some of the old media to the new filter it will speed up the colonies in there

My inquiries purpose is to speed up the process. I have untill saturday

Unless the other tank has 2 or more filters I wouldn't take it away from it. You could cut a little off the filter sponge and take a little of whatever other media you have and add it to the new filter to speed up the progress, but I have no idea how long it would take to seed, I am assuming weeks rather than hours or days if live rock seeding is anything to go by.

Im just going to transfer all my established sand first and run the established filter for hours each day. In my minds eye I cant see why not. If bacteria metablizes in subtrate too and certain decor surfaces. It should almost be instant because of the sand ...but idk for sure is why I listen to your opinions.

I may just tranfer the filter pebbles and carbon and just leave a sponge running solo

defool89 wrote:My established filter is a aqueon 70, my new one is a rena xp3 175g filter. ..i guess I can stuff the old sponge in the new one temporarily but i do need to place it back so I dont risk my established ecosystem.

I'm not familiar with those two filters but I Googled a few images of them. I would just cut the old media loose and fit it in one of the first compartments of the canister filter. That's what I've always done for both canisters and HOBs. I still have the cut up sponges from my AC-70s in my canisters.

If you want to run both tanks off 1 set of media just split in half and go very heavy on water changes, however this is not ideal. These things need careful thought or you could crash both tanks. Or split the media and dose both filters with tetra safestart and you may well be golden

Add a bottle of Safestart & be done with it!

Why didnt I think.of that ok ill dose here in a bit. .. I hate being rushed especially with something so delicate. But I think that will ease the stress

Add it to your filter, directly before the fish.

Pufferpunk wrote:Add it to your filter, directly before the fish.

whats your time span on adding fish after I add it to the filter? hours, a day, two three?>

JRC3 wrote:

defool89 wrote:My established filter is a aqueon 70, my new one is a rena xp3 175g filter. ..i guess I can stuff the old sponge in the new one temporarily but i do need to place it back so I dont risk my established ecosystem.

I'm not familiar with those two filters but I Googled a few images of them. I would just cut the old media loose and fit it in one of the first compartments of the canister filter. That's what I've always done for both canisters and HOBs. I still have the cut up sponges from my AC-70s in my canisters.

Its a great filter, if you ever do get one heres some advice I learned the hard way having no manual....even after unplugging it...dont un clip the top side clips...OMG water everywhere to the point of fear. Just dont do it.

defool89 wrote:

Pufferpunk wrote:Add it to your filter, directly before the fish.

whats your time span on adding fish after I add it to the filter? hours, a day, two three?>

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