Using mature media to accelerate new tank cycle

[Kazenouta]

Hello everyone,
So recently I've been hearing a lot of being able to speed up the cycle time in my new 15g tank by taking some of the media from my already cycled 5g tank and placing it into the new tank's filter. This of course raises a few questions for me:

1) The filter on my 5g tank is an Aqua-tech 5-15 HOB. The bio-filter media is a rectangular shaped grouping of what looks like dental floss. The filter on my 15g is a Marineland Penguin 100b and so, uses a bio-wheel. As you can see the biological filtering medium is quite different in these two filters and so, it's not as though I can simply put the established bio-filter into the un-established tank's filter. I'm wondering, if I cut a small section out of the floss-like Aqua-tech bio-media and place it into the Marineland's filter box will this be sufficient in speeding along the cycling process?

2) If this is in fact a good way to go about speeding up the nitrogen cycle for my new tank, will removing some of the bio-media from my already established tank do anything to hurt the filtration system of the tank? (Note: my 5g tank is home to 1 Neon Tetra and 4 Zebra Danio until the 15g is established. I don't believe this is an overstocked tank)

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[rich311k]

That will help move things along. You can squueeze the pad in your new filter as well. that gunk is the good stuff.

[blue fin]

I use the gravel to get the cycle going, I just scoop out two to three good size scoops and put them in my smaller tank to get it started when I need to bring more fish into the community. I wouldn't cut out part of your filter unless you had an HOB with media bags or a canister with media in it, then you could transfer some of that media into the new filter to get it started. You should be ok in either case. I'll stick with the gravel as it is easier and has worked countless times for me without fail.

[sheamurai]

I second bluefin's suggestion - just grab some gravel from your established tank. In addition, you can change out the used filter floss in your established tank, and put that (without rinsing) in the other filter.

[Kazenouta]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone! I'm going to go ahead and pull some gravel out of my established tank tomorrow as it's been night time for the fish for an hour or so and I'd rather not scare them by messing with the tank at the moment. I will however do so tomorrow.

Thanks again for your fast responses! Hopefully the gravel transfer will speed things a long a bit. I've read that even a trace amount of ammonia eating bacteria multiply extremely fast so, here's hoping!

[Northernguy]

The largest part of your cycle is in your filter media.
Your gravel has nowhere the same amount of bacteria in it.It helps but use what you can out your filter.