I am setting up a new tank (freshwater tropical) and have a tank with a fish already (which I mistakenly cycled with Nutrafin). The old tank has very high nitrate levels and some nitrite so I think it now needs help.

Does anyone have any filter media they are throwing away that already have bacteria? I will pay postage and other costs.

Thanks.

Mature filture material won't lower your nitrates. Lower those with water changes. If your tap water has high nitrate levels use r. o. water, that would also help with the p.h.
What level of nitrite and nitrate have you got in the tank.

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The nitrate level is down to 50 (from 100) after a water change this morning. The nitrite has been about 1, but seems to have gone down. There was no ammonia. Does this mean my tank is cycling?

My worry is/was that the Nutrafin Cycle I was told to use to bypass the normal cycling procedure has not worked (most people seem to be quite negative about the stuff). I was then told that using someone else's filter material might help. Perhaps this was bad advice.

I am looking into RO water units. The nitrate in my tap water is about 25 according to my test strips. I should have really checked this before

If you have nitrite but no ammonia that means the first part of cycling is done (establishing a colony of bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrite) the second part (establishing a colony of bacteria to convert nitrite to nitrate) can only begin once the first part is completed. As you only have 1ppm nitrite I would think that the second part is almost complete.

For the nitrification process to take place you need a colony of live bacteria. Live bacteria need a constant supply of food and oxygen. How can they get those when they are in a sealed bottle sat on a dealers shelf for months?
Using mature filter material from an established tank to seed your own would work, but the mature media would have to be handled properly

25ppm nitrate in your tap water is very high, a 25% water change with that will only lower the level in the tank by around 6ppm.
If you are going to buy an r.o. unit check which type of membrane it uses, some need to be run continuosly and some can be turned off. Remember that around 90% of the water that goes through the unit will be used to flush the surface of the membrane and then go straight down the drain, expensive if you are on a water meter. Also the membranes need replacing at regular intervals. It might be cheaper just to buy the water from a dealer. You will also have to remineralize r.o. water

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Thank you. You have helped me a lot. I am not on a meter so I might get an RO unit.

I will check what is available.

Cheers.

Just re read your first post. Sending mature media throught the post will result in a massive die off of the bacretial colony and only add to your problems

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lol - so I was misinformed again. Thanks for letting me know. I will probably go ahead with the RO unit and water changes and see how it goes.

It's not that you can't use it, just that it needs to be handled and transported properly to keep the bacteria alive

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I was told that it would survive in moist conditions for a day so 1st class post was a possibility.

Maybe, be it wouldn't be my choice of how to do it.

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