Is it possible to cycle a small tank?

[Hallyx]

As I have no substrate for my 5g, I compensated by putting about 4 cu/in additional foam around my filter (in the filter bay of my divided tank) in addition to the closed-ended foam tube on my filter outflow.

Thanks for all the tips and info, Thunderloon.

I'll darken the filter bay.

How do I get more oxygen into my system? I'm using a Hagen Elite Mini cartridge filter.

[glitchsniffer]

This does make alot of sense Thunder. So by that thinking, if I were to say have a Tetra Whisper ex 40 for a 2.5 gal tank it would be more likely to hold a cycle? Not to mention that it would be too much for a betta but for example only. Being that the filter would have more surface area to hold bacteria? Not saying I have that filter but is that the jist of the thought. If so I may be willing to try that and see what happens. Fish out cycle that is. Petco is running a sale right now on the Aqueon 2.5g mini bow and I just purchased one. I really didn't have any plan for it but for 25 bucks I really couldn't resist. This might be a fun experiment. I do have another 2.5g mini bow with a betta in it, and a 6.6g bookshelf that I am currently waiting to cycle. I was also thinking of coupling the two tanks to make them easier to cycle. Via either some sort of piping between the two with a filter sucking out of one and depositing into the second. The only problem with that would be consistent heating. I do wonder if that would be possible. Maybe a cannister filter across 3 or 4 minibows. Makes another intersting idea for another experiment. Fishless again of course!

[Ilikebutterflies]

I have this same little tank (the Eclipse Explorer 2g w/biowheel). I have since upgraded to a 10g for my new little pet but was debating on returning him the the Eclipse when my new pair get here so they can live in the divided 10g. The bio wheel filter worked really well for my 55g that I had several years ago so I thought it would be fine. Then I read that one cannot hope to cycle such a filter for a small tank like ours.
I personally think the teeny bit of carbon is useless and was debating just leaving an old cartridge in and rinsing it out every so often if gets clogged in order to keep a place for the bacteria to grow besides the bio wheel. I thought about just replacing the cartridge with a sponge too. The cartridge is 2.75x4 which yields 11 square inches. The biowheel appears to offer an additional 2 inches of surface area. I was considering making a sponge cover for the inlet to slow the current down a bit which would add even more surface area. BTW I found that keeping the water level slightly higher than the bottom of the return chute greatly reduces the turbulance created by the returning water.
So, in theory, that should be MORE than sufficient to clean up after 1 betta. I think the only way to cycle this small of a filter would be to do it fishless for a few weeks because wouldn't doing partial water changes make it impossible for the filter to ever properly cycle?

[Cattitude]

Originally Posted by Ilikebutterflies

I think the only way to cycle this small of a filter would be to do it fishless for a few weeks because wouldn't doing partial water changes make it impossible for the filter to ever properly cycle?

I have read other posts that say it's impossible to cycle a tank that's less than 5 gal. That said, I test the water in my explorer 2g tank every couple of days (liquid, not strips) and I've yet to see an ammonia spike in 2 months. I just left the filter and bio-wheel as is with no modifications, but I do 50% water changes twice a week. I just have one male betta in the tank.

Water changes, especially partial ones, don't affect establishing a cycle. The beneficial bacteria mainly cling to surfaces. The filter media (and bio-wheel) provide a lot of surface area. Changing the media is what is most detrimental to cycling. Just rinse it out in old tank water and don't change it every month as the cartridge instructions tell you.

[Hallyx]

Originally Posted by glitchsniffer

... I was also thinking of coupling the two tanks to make them easier to cycle. Via either some sort of piping between the two with a filter sucking out of one and depositing into the second....

I messed (the operative term here) around with a filter in a separate 1/2gal feeding into two small show tanks, siphoning back into the 1/2g. Apparently siphoning works a lot better when the water levels are really disparate. When the tanks are close to the same depth even a large tube does not reliably siphon. That's what the "mess" reference is about.

I finally got my homemade bubbler built and my spare 2.5 g cleaned. I start cycling tomorrow. I'll post my results on a new thread. I encourage you to do likewise.

[sparkyjoe]

Looking forward to the results, Hallyx.
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