# Aquarium Cloning Cleaning stuff?



## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

So I briefly read about cloning. Something like it was similar to sourdough starter. I started my small 10 gallon tank using the HOB filter my brother had used and never cleaned when he had cichlids. I am still waiting for the other boot to fall, but I believe there were enough benificial bacteriia in the old filter pad to quickly start a colony of these bacteria whatever they are. I was about to throw the pad away (a scrubby pad) but just wet it and put it back in front of the filter media. 

So, supposing everything is innoculated now. How do I innoculate a new set up in a larger tank. I would say keep the old filter pads and if nothing died, put the old pad in a new HOB filter to innoculate new media. The same exact fish are moving to the bigger tank. They are babies, so I can keep them in this tank, but I am preparing a 30 gallon tank for about 6 months from now. I plan to get a larger filter, innoculate it, and then continue to also use the old HOB filter, and all of the mopani wood and gravel/ sand and plants I have now. 

The new tank will have been going for around 5 months with sand, gravel, mopani wood, plants, shrimp. Plant fertilizer is kelp. 

Do you think 5 months is long enough to develop benificial bacteria. Can anyone send me a link to a sientific article divulging the names of said benificials? I am quite the nerd and love siency talk.


----------



## Tolak (Mar 10, 2013)

Five months is plenty. I've cloned tanks countless times, start them up & shut them down at will. I also increase stocking x10 at times. You just need to understand how bacteria work in an aquarium, as well as how some of the water conditioning products work.

A mature colony of nitrifying bacteria is capable of doubling in 18-20 hours. As bacteria go this is rather slow, for ease of math, water changes & my life schedule I like to ballpark it at doubling every 24 hours. This being the case, you can generally take 1/3 of the mature media out of a tank, and add it to a new tank that contains 1/3 the stocking of the donor tank, and expect no issues. For safety's sake it's a good idea to fast the donor tank for a day before pulling media, and feed both tanks lightly for the next week, less food means less waste produced. This helps to eliminate the risk of any spikes. By all means test the water the first few times doing this, until you feel pretty confident on how things work out.

Many times I'll get a lot of fish in, mostly angels, 200 to maybe 500 at a time. I flip back & forth between breeding angels & buying overstock from other breeders, 30 tanks & 1k gallons to play with in the fishroom allows me to do this.

I'll often take a tank with 10 angels, and add 100+, with nothing more than a large water change every other day for a week. Knowing the nitrifying bacteria will double every 24 hours, the tank with 10 angels can handle 20 by the 2nd day, 40 by the 3rd day, 80 by the 4th day, by the 5th day it's a done deal. On day 2 it's a 75% water change with a triple dose of Prime, same with day 4, day 6 gets a 50% with a triple dose of Prime & everyone is happy. Prime will tie up ammonia for 24-48 hours, into a form that doesn't harm the fish, but is used the same as ammonia by the nitrifying bacteria. It also does the same to nitrite.

Remember that a mature colony of nitrifying bacteria doesn't mean your tank that just cycled a couple weeks back. Most of the large sponge filters I run have been in service for years, good sponge isn't cheap but it's worth it. Nitrifying bacteria also have been shown to go dormant in a previously heavily stocked tank that is currently stocked more lightly, and rebound to heavy stocking considerably quicker.

So to start with plain cloning, 1/3 of the media, 1/3 of the stocking, feed lightly, test & be ready to do water changes as needed. Beyond that feel free to push the limits, provided you do have a good backup system planned out.


----------



## kalyke (Nov 19, 2014)

Due to your response, I have moved up my schedual. I hope to get the fish in the new tank in a few weeks. Last night I did my final leak test. I washed natural colored pool filter sand. I placed it in the bottom of the fish tank which is on a drip tray as well. I removed large decorations from the old tank ( mopani wood and rocks) and placed them with sand in new tank. Added 3 gallons of RO water. Added the old filter pad. The wood and rocks have the nitrifying bacteria on them. I have placed small pots in the old tank to act as caves, since I took the mopani wood cave system. Tomorrow I will fill up the rest of the ROwater in the new tank, move 1/3 rd of the medium, and turn the filter on. It will still be a while before the fish are moved. I have read not to add plants. I basically over planted my small tank, so I could get some plants going. This tank is also to be low to moderate light, with fish and plants who do not like bright areas.


----------



## discusbreeder (Oct 7, 2014)

The drawback on cloning tanks is that the bad moves with the good. Any infestation in the parent tank will be present in the clones.


----------



## Tolak (Mar 10, 2013)

discusbreeder said:


> The drawback on cloning tanks is that the bad moves with the good. Any infestation in the parent tank will be present in the clones.


Potentially yes, but if you've got infested tanks you've got more to worry about than setting up new tanks. Due to competitive exclusion, which applies to bacteria just as much as any other living species this is rarely the case. Proper bio security measures also apply with multiple tanks, you wouldn't want to be cloning from a tank you just added some shop fish to.


----------

