Adding Fish To A New Tank

[dannym]

Hi all,

I have just bought a 190 Litre Juwel trigon aquarium, Which im picking up tomorrow. I currently have a 60 Litre tank & was wondering how i go about adding my fish to the new tank for eg:

Can i just fill up my new tank with the water from my old 60 Litre (leaving a little water in the old tank for fish to swim) then just fill up the rest of the new tank with treated water then add my fish?..

Or will i have to leave my tank for a number of days before i can add my fish?

If someone could explain the process i have to go through i would really appreciate it as im still a newbie to keeping fish, and dont want to kill/stress any of my fish, im really not sure how to move them from one tank to the other

I have 10 fish

1 plec

2 angels

2 silver sharks

2 blue rainbows

And some gupies

Thanks very much guys..

Danny..

 

[afishdude]

move the filter media from the old filter to the new one, or better yet move the old filter into the new tank with the new filter. if you do one of those two, then you can add fish right away.

 

[crazie.eddie]

DO NOT MOVE FISH RIGHT AWAY!!!!


Even if you add bacteria from an established tank, the bacteria still need to colonize and match the bioload. This happens during a cycle. Add the water and dechlorinator (Seachem Prime is suggested), then let it sit and run for a few days. This will let the chlorine/chlorine to be removed. Then add a used filter media, substrate, etc. from an established tank. The reason you don't want to add the media immediately is if there is chlorine that is still remaining in the water, it would kill the bacteria. Wait about a few days, then add fish slowly, about 5% of fish per week. Perform a water change (no gravel cleaning) every day for the first week or so. Repeat the steps each week, until the tank is fully cycled.

 

[afishdude]

DO NOT MOVE FISH RIGHT AWAY!!!!


Even if you add bacteria from an established tank, the bacteria still need to colonize and match the bioload. This happens during a cycle. Add the water and dechlorinator (Seachem Prime is suggested), then let it sit and run for a few days. This will let the chlorine/chlorine to be removed. Then add a used filter media, substrate, etc. from an established tank. The reason you don't want to add the media immediately is if there is chlorine that is still remaining in the water, it would kill the bacteria. Wait about a few days, then add fish slowly, about 5% of fish per week. Perform a water change (no gravel cleaning) every day for the first week or so. Repeat the steps each week, until the tank is fully cycled.

do you understand what you just said?
the bacteria is colonized enough to be fine in his 60 or whatever for the fish, moving the same fish to a bigger tank will not change the bio load. so the bacteria would be enough. prime declors the water in seconds not days.
if you only add 5% of the fish per week there wont be enough ammonia to feed the bacteria and you will loose beneficial bacteria by starving it.
moving tanks will not cause you to loose your cycle. it might cause a mini cycle with can be cured by lots of WC's.

 

[dannym]

So am i right in saying that i can pick the tank up (second hand btw) pour say three quaters of my old water to the new tank top up with treated water, then put my old filter in with my new filter then add my fish?..

 

[dannym]

Also is there a quicker way to do water changes?.. I have this suction tube thing & it takes long enough to water change the 60 litre let alone a 190 litre!

Cheers

 

[crazie.eddie]

DO NOT MOVE FISH RIGHT AWAY!!!!


Even if you add bacteria from an established tank, the bacteria still need to colonize and match the bioload. This happens during a cycle. Add the water and dechlorinator (Seachem Prime is suggested), then let it sit and run for a few days. This will let the chlorine/chlorine to be removed. Then add a used filter media, substrate, etc. from an established tank. The reason you don't want to add the media immediately is if there is chlorine that is still remaining in the water, it would kill the bacteria. Wait about a few days, then add fish slowly, about 5% of fish per week. Perform a water change (no gravel cleaning) every day for the first week or so. Repeat the steps each week, until the tank is fully cycled.

do you understand what you just said?
the bacteria is colonized enough to be fine in his 60 or whatever for the fish, moving the same fish to a bigger tank will not change the bio load. so the bacteria would be enough. prime declors the water in seconds not days.
if you only add 5% of the fish per week there wont be enough ammonia to feed the bacteria and you will loose beneficial bacteria by starving it.
moving tanks will not cause you to loose your cycle. it might cause a mini cycle with can be cured by lots of WC's.

Yes, but the bacteria will not die right away. When you add all fish right away, their waste produces allot of ammonia. The bacteria is NOT enough to take in that much ammonia. You should understand, when you remove substrate, even all the substrate from one tank into another and use the media, you will not take in all the bacteria. There is also dead areas in the substrate that, I believe, are anaerobic areas, which contains some kind of sulfide.

Also is there a quicker way to do water changes?.. I have this suction tube thing & it takes long enough to water change the 60 litre let alone a 190 litre!

Cheers

yes, add fish, but not all at once. As far as quick water changes, is the Python No-spill available there? It's a great tool for WCs.

 

[afishdude]

substrate holds 1% of the good bacteria, some say less than 1%.
please tell me how moving the fish will create more ammonia then they are creating right now? it wont.
ok hears the deal lets say hes moving 10 fish.
the 10 fish are in the 60, he moves the same 10 fish to the 190, how would there be more ammonia? the bacteria is colonized for the 10 fish, moving the same 10 fish would not need more bacteria then what is already there for the 10 fish.

 

[vinylman]

There's no need to save more than half your old tankwater. The bacteria live mainly in the filter.

 

[Spooky76]

As far as removing water quickly. I have a syphon which is 16mm. It remove about 20 litres in a few minutes, just buy a bigger syphon. Problem is that you really want to vac as much of your gravel when you clean it as you can. With a huge one, you wont get much done, but hey Saves you standing around half the day

 

[crazie.eddie]

substrate holds 1% of the good bacteria, some say less than 1%.
please tell me how moving the fish will create more ammonia then they are creating right now? it wont.
ok hears the deal lets say hes moving 10 fish.
the 10 fish are in the 60, he moves the same 10 fish to the 190, how would there be more ammonia? the bacteria is colonized for the 10 fish, moving the same 10 fish would not need more bacteria then what is already there for the 10 fish.

The bacteria hasn't colonized the tank yet. You move all 10 fish, they create waste, waste breaks down into ammonia. Not having sufficient amount of bacteria means high ammonia levels. As the nitrisomas bacteria multiply and feed on ammonia, the bi-product is nitrites. Nitribacter bacteria hasn't fully colonized the tank, therefore, there are high levels of nitrites. The Nitrobacter feed on the nitrites and the bi-product is nitrates.

There's no need to save more than half your old tankwater. The bacteria live mainly in the filter.

The reason people save some of there water is trying to keep the water parameters the same. When you get fresh water from your sink, it usually contains some levels of CO2. As the CO2 outgasses, the pH changes. Also, fresh water from the tap normally contains chlorine/chloramine. Chlorine will kill bacteria. If you use water from your tap, let it sit for awhile with the filters running and the proper dechlorinator used.

 

[alessasavoca]

The bacteria is in the filter-if he moves the filter as it is (making sure that all water in the tank is dechlorinated before he puts is in the tank) then there is plenty of bacteria in the filter to cope with the bio load.

It doesn't colonise the tank-it colonises the filter media. Hence moving the filter is all he needs to do. As long as he doesn't add anymore fish it's fine.

 

[Essjay]

Last year I upgraded from 60 to 125l, and from 25 to the 60l.

First I put new gravel into the 125l, then I tranfered most of the water and all the fish, and put all the media from the 60l into the new filter - the foam had to be cut up and the ceramic rings put into a bag, but it all fit, together with some new sponges. Then I moved the water and fish from the 25l into the 60l, putting the foam from the smaller tank into the 60l filter (into the space designed for charcoal) together with a new foam and ceramic rings.

I watched the NH3 and NO2 levels for a few weeks and they never rose above 0.

I also waited about 6 weeks before adding more fish, probably longer than needed but better safe than sorry!

I've left the old sponge from the 25l in the 60l as the 25 is now my quarantine tank, but I slowly swapped the old 60l media for the proper media for the new filter in the 125.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Last year I upgraded from 60 to 125l, and from 25 to the 60l.

First I put new gravel into the 125l, then I tranfered most of the water and all the fish, and put all the media from the 60l into the new filter - the foam had to be cut up and the ceramic rings put into a bag, but it all fit, together with some new sponges. Then I moved the water and fish from the 25l into the 60l, putting the foam from the smaller tank into the 60l filter (into the space designed for charcoal) together with a new foam and ceramic rings.

I watched the NH3 and NO2 levels for a few weeks and they never rose above 0.

I also waited about 6 weeks before adding more fish, probably longer than needed but better safe than sorry!

I've left the old sponge from the 25l in the 60l as the 25 is now my quarantine tank, but I slowly swapped the old 60l media for the proper media for the new filter in the 125.

Yep, it is better safe than sorry. Unless we have a microscope handy at our homes to examine how much bacteria is in our tanks, it's best to just take your time.

 

[afishdude]

Last year I upgraded from 60 to 125l, and from 25 to the 60l.

First I put new gravel into the 125l, then I tranfered most of the water and all the fish, and put all the media from the 60l into the new filter - the foam had to be cut up and the ceramic rings put into a bag, but it all fit, together with some new sponges. Then I moved the water and fish from the 25l into the 60l, putting the foam from the smaller tank into the 60l filter (into the space designed for charcoal) together with a new foam and ceramic rings.

I watched the NH3 and NO2 levels for a few weeks and they never rose above 0.

I also waited about 6 weeks before adding more fish, probably longer than needed but better safe than sorry!

I've left the old sponge from the 25l in the 60l as the 25 is now my quarantine tank, but I slowly swapped the old 60l media for the proper media for the new filter in the 125.

Yep, it is better safe than sorry. Unless we have a microscope handy at our homes to examine how much bacteria is in our tanks, it's best to just take your time.

no its not, as much as you think your right your not your wrong.

by only adding 1 fish to a 10 fish cycled filter there will only be 1/10 of the food for the bacteria. thus loosing more bacteria than you are gaining.