Welcome to MCA. Normally I would say to just seed your new filter with some cycled media but from the sounds of it you're just getting back in to the hobby so probably don't have any cycled media to use. If you were closer I'd offer you some to get ya started but looks like you are on the other side of the state from me. Do you have a good local fish store or friend that you can get some media from to seed your new filter? That would help jump start the cycle. If not then I'd suggest doing a fishless cycle. I haven't had to cycle a tank for about 8 yrs because I always have some cycled media on hand but back when I set up my first tank that's the method I used and it took about 28 days but it gave me a good bacteria colony. If you're not familiar with it just google "fishless cycling" and you'll find how it is done, its pretty easy to do.
