How long would it take to seed the bio media for my new filter?

I set up my new tank on the weekend with most of the existing tank water as well as my existing canister filter from my old tank. My new Fiter is a top of tank wet and dry trickel filter and there is probaly about 5kgs of ceramic rings in it. The week before i set up my new tank the ceramic rings were placed in the filter baskets and left in my old tank to try and start seeding new bacteria.
I never planned to remove my canister filter from the new tank but i added a new smaller oscar when changing tanks, the older lager oscar is bullying the new oscar a bit and the new one spends most of its time in hiding. I was thinking if the bullying dosn't stop i could set up my old tank again with my canister filter and put the old guy in there for a week or 2 and let the new oscar establish its own territory in the new tank the re-introduce them.

Just wondering how long i would have to wait before it would be safe to remove the canister filter and let the new filter support the tank? Eventually the canister will be added to the new tank again. I also have an internal filter in the tank which was used on the old tank as well.

i would keep both filter running on the new tank for at least a month or so to ensure that the new filter has enough time to form a large enough bacteria colony of its own.

also when you do remove the secondary canister keep an eye on your water levels to be sure that there is no ammonia spike.

Thanks for the advise Neco....i was thinking that maybe it would happen quicker due to the fact that there is already a cycled filter running in the tank? But i will take your advise and leave it for a month...lets just hope the bullying dosen't get any worse.
Thanks Mate!

if the bullying is to severe you could use a divider in your tank, provided it(the tank) is large enough, to keep them separated until your filter seeds.

for a divider i found that eggcrate is easiest to come by and work with to fit into the tank. you can pick it up at home depot for about $8 or so a sheet.

40 days to cycle fully......

Would that be 40 days from when the filter was up and running or 40 days from when i was placed in my old tank?
What about that bacteria in a bottle stuff u can get at the LFS would that speed things up or is it best just to wait?
Thanks

40 days from the medias first contact with ammo.........the bottle stuff in my opinion is useless but many will disagree...i say theres only one way to cycle and only 40 days will do it ..no more no less......hope this helps

Cheers mate! so i guess the first contact with the ammo would be when the media was placed in my old tank?

well ....if there were fish in the said tank when the filter entered the water for the first time ..no fish = no ammo

hope this helps butty ......

yep it did. There were fish in the mentioned tank so i will take that day as the starting date....19/4 so that means the filter will be cycled on the 29/5
cheers

no probs ....give it 5 days over the 29th just to be sure mate..