"IM MR1DRFL" wrote in message
...
Hi All!
I plan on starting a new 10 gallon planted tank this week and I
plan
on taking the water out of my 50 gallon planted tank. Do I need to cycle
the
ten gallon tank and can I put a few fish in immediately? If not what are
some
of the steps that I need to do?



Its the filter that needs to be "cycled". You can shorten this process (to
almost nil) by taking some filter media out of your existing tank. Depends
on what kind of filter you have in there.....if its a UGF then just take
some of the substrate, if its an internal or external filter then take some
filter wool or bio media. If its a sponge based filter & you don't want to
cut the sponges then see if you could cram some additional media into the
filter for a few days (some filter wool or an additional sponge for example)
after a day or two the new media will have been populated with bacteria &
you can remove it to your new tank where it will seed you new filter very
quickly. The bacteria are of course in the water itself (and on every
surface in the tank for that matter) so using mature water will help too but
assuming you took some mature fulter media into the new tank I'd probably
use half old water & half new to get it started.

Bear in mind that the bacteria that live in the filters need ammonia &
nitrites to feed on so you need some source of ammonia in your new tank - if
you put a mature filter into a sterile, clean tank it will actually die
back - so putting a few fish in at the same time is very much the way to go.
Check for ammonia & nitrites for the first week or so - you may never see
any if you do it right.

HTH

I.