Cayambe
Member
Is there any way to cycle my external filter before I connect it to the tank? I mean could I let it stand with water for a month (full or half full), or would that have no effect at all?
Cheers
Thomas
Cheers
Thomas
I disagree.Never ever leave a filter stagnant for longer than a few hours.
I'm a "plant, and leave to establish" person as well.I too would plant the tank with more than a few plant's and let it run for three or four week's, and then maybe introduce a few fish and wait another couple week's and add a few more.
I've done this as well, I think the reason is that we have relatively little bacterial activity in our filters and a lot of it in the tank substrate etc, even if the water in the filter becomes de-oxygenated it isn't disastrous. Also because the plants are still taking up ammonia (even in the dark), you don't get the ammonia spike you would get if you were reliant on biological filtration by the filter. Anecdotally (on other forums) I've heard that even relatively short filter outages in non-planted tanks have led to mass tank-death.Came back and found that power had been off for 3 days (according to our house alarm). House was f'ing cold, fish tank was about 18C. Turned all back on, tank warmed up, filter filtered nothing interesting fish tank wise at all.
I wouldn't do this. As the other have pointed out you, need at least a trickle of ammonia, but oxygen is the key.I mean could I let it stand with water for a month (full or half full), or would that have no effect at all?
It won't do any harm, although it probably won't help a lot.I could drop the filter media in the bins where I'm currently soaking the driftwood (huge pieces). Would that be of any help?