To start a cycle

[Davey Jones]

Could I grab the biowheel off of my freshwater powerfilter and just let it float around in the top of a saltwater tank for a while to get some bacteria in ther? Are there some magic zoomies that live in freshwater that will crash my tank?

Also, is there a good way to get a population of pods established before I add fish? Do I need to throw any tidbits of food in there for them since there will be no fish to help support their population?

 

[disc1]

Two different worlds of bacteria.

You can put little bits of flake food in there if you are concerned for them. They can live on what they find in the live rock if you don't. The little bit of food will help kick your cycle into gear.


PS Love the sig.

 

[Landonmonoc]

There won't be any good bacteria from a freshwater tank, if u took one off of a saltwater filter an put it in the back of your current filter that would be more ideal, but still wont hardly do much. I would highly recommend getting live rock and sand for your biological filtration, if u don't want to wait the two (or so) weeks for your water to level out I would recommend "one and only" nitrifying bacteria.

 

[disc1]

I should add, there's no need to add the bacteria. They are there on your live rock. What you need to do is add ammonia (via the little bits of food or just waiting for die off on the rock) to get their numbers up.