cycling a new 29 gallon

[Faydra]

Hello All!

I am buying a 29 gallon tank as a QT for my spare room next week and I want some ideas on the best/fastest way to fishless cycle it. I put a small sponge filter in my 55 gallon about two months ago to get some bacteria going on it and I was thinking of putting it into the new tank (along with a HOB filter). Would that be enough to cycle it? How long should I wait until I add fish? Could I also use some of my 55 gallon tank water? Once it is cycled, I eventually want to swap the sponge filter out for a bigger one, any ideas on what is the best way to do that?

Thanks in advance!

Faydra

[joanr]

Yes it would be enough, you are not actually cycling the water, just the filter media. But it would not be pathogen free. If you had any flukes or whatever in the 55 they would be transfered to your 29g. To be absolutely sure you would need to do a totally clean fishless cycle with new media, about 5 weeks. Some folks will use Safe Start or other bio in a bottle to speed things up. I find those products useful only if the filtration needs a pick me up after using meds, but the Safe Start is the best one I've tried so far. You can double deck/stack the sponges placing the new larger one on the bottom and smaller one over that. The Hydras come with an extra extender in the box. A few weeks and the new one should be good to go.

[Faydra]

Thanks for your help Joan!