i am wondering does biological bacteria need running water to colonise on new media or can it colonise in standing water please?...i have took a bucket of tank water into a bucket washed out some filter media in it and added a few old filter sponges ...THEN put my new ceramic media into the bucket with the FILTHY filter water and tank water for about 10 days to try to start a bacterior colony on the new media !!!!!!!!! BUT i dont know if the bucket would need a flow ,i know the bacteria needs oxygen but will it be ok for ten days or will it diminsh in 10 days or should i conect an AIR PUMP to the bucket????????help on this will be very much apreciated thanks

bacteria needs both oxygen and food to live. the food it gets is from the waste from the fish. i know that if your filters are off for more than a couple of hours you run the risk of the colony dieing off. so i think that 10 days might be to long for it to survive. the easiest way to seed a new bio matter is run it in a filter that is placed in an established tank. basically if you have your new filter already just hook it up to your tank and let it run. if you can do this for ten days you will have a good start on cycling your new tank.

another thought is to just place your new media directly into your established tank and some bacteria should begin to colonize it.

thanks for that but the reason i cant run the filter is i dont want to cut the intake and output tubes as they come in one length with double ends ???so if i cut it without knowing the length i need for the new tank i might have to go and get more!! the reason i cant pou the media in another filter is the new media is HUGE BIO BALLS and HUGE POND CERAMICS and i cant fit it in the trays of the 405,s i didnt realy want to put it in the tank as the water is so clean in there most of my bacteria is in the filters so i figured the contents of the filters and filthy filter water with the new media in a bucket will give the new media MAXIMUM BACTERIA CONTACT that i can give it ..i have just dropped a in a powerhead and an air feed ......as i understand wastw food produces amonia and nitrite so would adding some hikari to the bucket help the bacteria??????

or you may consider importing some media in the establish tank,
that is transferring some media from existing to the new filter.
but it should be done fast to avoid killing the bacteria colony

if i remember correctly an fx5 intake and return hose is 1 inch in diameter. i know the hardware stores here sell 1" clear vinyl hose for about $1.50 per foot(about $15 for ten feet). so for a small price you can hook up the new filter without using the supplied hose and seed the filter by running it naturally.

cheers guys i got some spare hoze and i have put 1 tray of mature media in the new filter and the others with new media...i will just leave it run on the established tank for 10 days to give it a good start...but i am still interested to know if the first method i mentioned is efective for colonizing media..........

biggamehunter wrote:


my understanding is that if the water is not agitated and no aeration, the oxygen is depleted or very thin (surface only), if that is the case air bubbles will give little effect, thereby, all bacteria will die. this is also why stagnant water smell bad because the bacteria had limited supply of oxygen, and can not process the waste as their foods.

in your concept, i believe you will just get stain in your ceramic balls but not good living bacteria at all.

but i do have a power head running in there as well as the air feed

in my trial, i did the same thing in different mode. put some filter media inside my establish tank (at the corner), thinking that bacteria will colonize it. when i used the said media in another tank and run it for a week, all my red cap oranda died (10 pcs)

in my next trial, i import some media from the filtering box wherein water is passing through. used them in the said tank (with new water and set up), run for one week, then put another set of red cap oranda. it works and keep those fishes healthy until one of my client bought the whole set up.

my conclusion: bacteria do not thrive in a media if there is no active water passing in it. running water gives the bacteria the oxygen needed and the waste of fishes to process as foods converting the ammonia and nitrite into less toxic substance acceptable to fishes. just my opinion.

(note: no testing kit to determine the water parameters by then, that is why we did things in trial and error) to day, we have testing kit (1 month already) and i do test the water accordingly. of course, the cost of the testing kit were charge to my client.

thanks for your input paul ..my original question when i started the thread was do the bacteria need running water !!! and you have just answered it thanks again

come to think about it, yeah, its true. that is
only your questiona and yet we have this lenghty
exchange of ideas.

bacteria needs running water, that why it is not
advisable to shut off the pump. logically, that
is the only explanation you needed:laugh: