# How Long To Seed Bacteria In Bio-Media



## Duke79 (Jul 16, 2010)

I'm setting up a new 40 gallon breeder aquarium and plan to seed it with bacteria from an existing tank. If I put some new bio-media (Seachem Matrix) in the Aquaclear 110 filter along side some "old" existing media ... how long does it take for bacteria to colonize the new bio-media?


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## rgr4475 (Mar 19, 2008)

I think I remember reading on here around 2 weeks but I am not 100% sure.


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## dsouthworth (Sep 7, 2011)

So it takes about 3-4 weeks to fully cycle a tank without any media. 
I'm pretty sure that 3 weeks would be fine with the media. You dont want to rush these kinds of things


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

I was able to have a new tank cycled in about one week after seeding it. I probably just got lucky though. Go easy on adding ammonia (1-2 ppm) to the new tank till you get 0 readings on ammonia and nitrite within 24 hours of adding it.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> how long does it take for bacteria to colonize the new bio-media?


You need to cycle the tank. Don't just add the seeded media and wait. The important question is how long until my biomedia can process 1-2ppm in 24 hours? See Fishless Cycling. Whether the bacteria doing the processing reside on old media, new media, or both doesn't really matter.


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## dsouthworth (Sep 7, 2011)

prov356 said:


> > how long does it take for bacteria to colonize the new bio-media?
> 
> 
> You need to cycle the tank. Don't just add the seeded media and wait. The important question is how long until my biomedia can process 1-2ppm in 24 hours? See Fishless Cycling. Whether the bacteria doing the processing reside on old media, new media, or both doesn't really matter.


i used that tink as a guide for my first fishless. it worked well and i would strongly sugect for you to follow that guide. other ways can be difficult. come even say to do a 99% water change once your done. this is wrong. after the tank is established. you should wait 2 weeks before any water gets taken out. this gives plenty of time for the tank to become stable.


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## Duke79 (Jul 16, 2010)

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll be moving some of the old filter bio-media and the new bio-media to the tank to help establish the bacteria in the new aquarium. Hopefully I can get this cycle completed with as little pain as possible.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

dsouthworth said:


> come even say to do a 99% water change once your done. this is wrong. after the tank is established. you should wait 2 weeks before any water gets taken out. this gives plenty of time for the tank to become stable.


I agree that it's not wise to do a large water change when a tank is newly cycled, however, I wouldn't advise adding fish to such a tank till you've done enough water changes to lower the nitrates. Waiting two weeks to change water would be a mistake. The nitrate levels are usually very high when a tank is newly cycled (especially if you haven't been doing them during the cycling process). You don't want to add this to the list of stressors your fish are dealing with when you introduce them to their new home. You need to do small water changes to get the nitrates down before adding fish.

It also takes more than two weeks for the beneficial bacteria to get firmly established (this is the reason you are advised to not mess with the filter for the first couple of months).

Prov356's article actually supports the above.


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