Congratulations on getting the new set-up. I'm assuming that you are placing it out of the influence of drafts from the door and light from the windows and that it is placed on flooring which will easily support over 600 lbs of aquarium.
When you said 50-gallon, I thought of the quite common 55-gallon aquarium which is usually 48x13x20 inches in its dimentions. The surface of that one is 624 square inches or .4 of a square meter. The 50-Gallon at 36x18x18 is 684 sq. inches of surface or .44 of a square meter. In effect its extra 10% of surface area will help it be more efficient in terms of caring for the fish. It is two inches shallower, so a little better for plants too.
1. I would guess that if the tank it is taken from has completed its cycle, the gravel is seeded. If you have to put other gravel in your 50, put the new stuff in first and then the (still wet) seasoned stuff on top.
2. Add better than 50% water from the established tanks if you can. If you have a seasoned sponge or box filter from an established tank (if not, get and start one now), then it is not absolutely necessary to fill the tank up. If you have 10 gallons of water from other tanks, you could just add 1o gallons of new treated/ seasoned water. Of course with the fishless cycling, you could just fill it up and see what happens. "No fish were injured in this cycle." ;)
3. I can understand adding 5 guppies or medium small fishes to the cycled tank. I need to appeal to the experience of Angelhologram and others here because if you have been cycling a fair amount of ammonia through there, I would think you probably could put more fish in there if it was running 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. But I would like to check with someone who has actually done this.
I regularly "cannibalize" established tanks to start new ones. The new populations of fish are light and plants are added for shelter, decoration and to help the aquarium over bumps in the ammonia supply. I rarely have any problems if over 1/2 of the gravel and water are imported from other tanks.
I would guess that you will significantly shorten the time that fishless cycling in a brand-new set-up would take by importing water, gravel and a filter.
We need to hear from anyone who has done the fishless cycling from scratch and anyone who has done the fishless cycle with the imported water, gravel and filter.
I know! I'll just tell my wife it is an experiment. I need two 50s on an over/ under stand. One will be cycled from scratch and one with the imported elements. :)
I fear that plan has as much chance of floating as the Titanic. ;)
Good luck with yours!
unc
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