Filter Media Transfer

If you have some ammonia to hand, transfer the media (you won't need much for 29 litres) then add enough ammonia to get 3 ppm. Test 24 hours later. If there's no ammonia or nitrite, you have enough  media and the tank is ready for fish.







Do you have a lot of plants in the tanks you already have?
At the end of 2019 I saw some fish I wanted so I went home, set up my quarantine tank, took some media from my main tank and added ammonia. Next day I still had 3 ppm ammonia, and the next day, and the next day. I ended up doing a fishless cycle and by the time that had completed they'd sold all the fish I wanted.
Fast forward several months and I set up the QT again but this time I took two large water sprite plants from the main tank and bought two bunches of elodea at the same time as the fish, and left that to float as well. I put 12 kuhli loaches into my 25 litre QT and never saw any ammonia or nitrite.

In my case, there are virtually no bacteria in my media. There may or may not be bacteria in the substrate. But the plants in my tank - and in the QT - keep the fish safe by removing ammonia.

So I just want to warn you that if you do have a lot of live plants, there may not be many bacteria in the media when you move it over.