I won’t go into much depth in regards to the Nitrogen cycle as I previously explained the entire premise in a previous article I wrote for My Tanklife which you can find here. Ideally, the startup of the aquarium should be done by doing a fishless cycle, which can take up to 3 weeks if done correctly. But we don’t live in an ideal world, unfortunately, sometimes things happen like having an aquarium leak or having to setup an emergency aquarium for sick or injured fish. What I will be explaining today is a process called “seeding” It is the process of transferring nitrifying bacteria from an established aquarium to a new aquarium. Seeding gives the new aquarium a jump start on the cycling process, which in turn helps to reduce stress on the fish and reduces or eliminates fish loss of fish when starting a new aquarium.

The premise for jump-starting a new aquarium’s Nitrogen cycle using the seeding method is extremely easy. Do you have another aquarium with dirty filter media? Be it a sponge filter, or maybe it is a sump or canister filter with some dirty polyester batting. Don’t have another aquarium and this is your first one? Then you can ask a friend or your local pet shop to provide you with some dirty filter media. Do you notice when you clean your aquarium filters that there is a lot of “gunk” this is a massive source of beneficial bacteria from an established filter. Using this “gunk” can shorten the cycle from 3 weeks to 4 to 12 days.  You will find beneficial bacteria in filter bags, floss, gravel, sponge, ceramic rings, bio balls, fluid bed media, etc. As a side note, there is almost zero beneficial bacteria in aquarium water.

This “gunk” is a very good source of beneficial bacteria that will remove the ammonia from your newly established aquarium. Just a note, you need an aquarium filter media that has been in place for at least two months or from a well-established aquarium. So how do you do it exactly? Well, it is rather simple, take your dirty aquarium filter and basically clean it out in the new aquarium. Make sure, and this is extremely important to get this brown gunk “stuck” in a place where there is good flow. Like near the intake of your filter or sponge filters, and make sure you stir up your aquarium when doing this. Your entire tank should be filled with dirt. Beneficial bacteria require both a surface to attach to and a good flow over that surface, as they require plenty of oxygen.

And yes it will make your aquarium look “dirty” but in the long run, this will clear up as your aquarium establishes itself, and you start doing regular maintenance. If you did the seeding correctly, your aquarium would be ready for livestock in between 4 and 12 days. Which is a massive difference from doing it the traditional way. As a side note that many people in the hobby say a used filter carries diseases and will contaminate a new tank, and yes in some cases this *might* be true. But the pathogens we are talking about here are things like columnaris bacteria. These bacteria are present in almost everyone’s aquariums and on most fish. These pathogens are what is termed “ubiquitous”. They are found everywhere. So keeping them out of your aquarium is almost impossible. Hopefully, this article helps you understand how bacteria seeding works and how it will help you establish your new aquarium.