Cycling a new tank with old filter? ?
I have an old tank that hasn’t been empty for about 2 years, it still has the original filter on it. I was wondering if I should keep the old filter media to cycle the tank, or if I should go through the whole cycling process again.
I reckon if any beneficial bacteria is on the old media it’s be dead by now correct?
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There would be no useful bacteria on an old dried out filter. Just replace the media, but you can use the old hardware.
The bacteria will start to die when the media starts to dry, or when there is nothing to feed it, like fish poo or decaying fish food. It would not hurt to have extra media in your new filter, but if it has been dry formore then a week, it wont be housing any live nitrifying bacteria.