How Long Will It Take To Cycle A Tank When I Am Uprgrading?

[HYJ]

Hi, following up the last post..

I am thinking of upgrading my 5 gallon tank to either 10 gallon or 12 gallon eclipse.

the 12 gallon eclipse tank is bit more expansive, but it's acrylic which I prefer due to weight, and it's also on sale($40.00 off from regular price plus FREE shipping) at PETCO until tomorrow.

So I am leaning towards the eclipse 12.

I have a question though. Will eclipse 12 (acrylic) be much lighter than 10 gallon glass aquarium when both are filled with water?

How much would the eclipse weigh approximately? If it doesn't weigh too much I might not have to purchase a stand.

Also... I am using eclipse corner 5 right now.. so if I use the biowheel from my current eclipse tank for the new eclipse 12, will it cycle the tank much faster? I am also willing to move my gravles, driftwood and silk plants from my current tank to the new one.

In this case how much faster cycling can I expect?

I have 3 male guppies and 3 neons in my 5 gallon tank.. so if I transfer them to the new tank.. can I add 7 more neons and 3 lemon tetras and about 3 cories?

that would be 16 fish in 12 gallon. Is that too much? Then if I don't put any cories will it be ok? 13 fishes in 12 gallon

Thanks

 

[cowboy507]

Im not too sure on the weight, but some one will put in their two cents also on this topic.

First when you are cycling do a fishless if you can. but use the media from your 5 gal tank, this will make the cycling process much faster.
Moving all the other stuff wont really do anything, so it is unnecessary.

the amount of fish should be alright in a well matured tank, what type of cory are you going to get? if there are small then they shouldnt be a prob, but if they are larger then i would just stick with the guppies and tetras

 

[waterdrop]

Assuming that what you want to do in this upgrade is move all your fish over to the new tank and not leave any behind, then it shouldn't be too hard to do. The filter is the critical thing. The vast majority of the beneficial bacteria live in the biomedia of the filter, so whereever that's operating it will constitute most of the "cycling" of your aquarium. That means you can set up your new Eclipse 12 with freshly rinsed substrate, new decorations etc. and then if you supply it with dechlorinted ("conditioned") tap water that is either roughly temperature matched to your old tank or actually matched via thermometers, then you can simply bag up your fish, move over your existing filter to the new tank, start it running properly and then aclimate the fish into the new aquarium just as you would if you were bringing them home from the store.

The bacterial load in your existing filter (assuming its fully cycled and supporting your fish) will be "matched" to that fish population, so it will keep right on handling their level of fish waste. If you want to add fish, right after an upgrade like this is not a good time. What you want to do is monitor your water stats closely the week after the switchover, testing ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and nitrate(NO3) perhaps once or twice. Once you've proven that everything is stable and the bacteria have not been disturbed by their move and the tank is still operating with zero ppm ammonia, zero ppm nitrite(NO2) and a nitrate(NO3) level that not more than 20 or 30ppm above tap level, then your ready for your first fish increase. Only increase the fish a few at a time. Perhaps add 4 neons first. If you lose one or two, as sometimes happens when transferring neons, you'll be able to add more when you get your next 3 neons a few weeks later. The a few weeks after that add a couple lemons and so on. Each of these small additions will allow your bacteria time to catch up!

The weight of the tank materials is pretty insignificant compared to the weight of the water held. If you are doubtful at all about the sturdyness of your support materials, get more opinions from qualified people. No one wants a collapse.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[HYJ]

Hi I actually called marineland yesterday, and I was informed with unexpected information.

According to the salesperson, both the bio-wheel and filter cartridge size are different for the 5 gallon and 12 gallon.

He said that it should be fine if I use the gravel from the old tank and leave the old bio-wheel floating in the new 12 gallon tank while running the tank with the new filteration system.

Would this actually work? Does leaving the old bio-wheel floating in a new tank speed up the cycle process?

I am starting to get discouraged with the upgrading process now, not to mention that it seems like I should also buy some kind of stand that would support the 12 G weight.

Maybe I should just stick with the 5 gallon for now and get something bigger when I leave school

In the future if I get 20 Gallon tank will I be able to stock

10 neon tetras
8 rummy nose tetras
8 glow light tetras
5 lemon tetras

Total number of 31 fishes?

Assuming that what you want to do in this upgrade is move all your fish over to the new tank and not leave any behind, then it shouldn't be too hard to do. The filter is the critical thing. The vast majority of the beneficial bacteria live in the biomedia of the filter, so whereever that's operating it will constitute most of the "cycling" of your aquarium. That means you can set up your new Eclipse 12 with freshly rinsed substrate, new decorations etc. and then if you supply it with dechlorinted ("conditioned") tap water that is either roughly temperature matched to your old tank or actually matched via thermometers, then you can simply bag up your fish, move over your existing filter to the new tank, start it running properly and then aclimate the fish into the new aquarium just as you would if you were bringing them home from the store.

The bacterial load in your existing filter (assuming its fully cycled and supporting your fish) will be "matched" to that fish population, so it will keep right on handling their level of fish waste. If you want to add fish, right after an upgrade like this is not a good time. What you want to do is monitor your water stats closely the week after the switchover, testing ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and pH twice a day and nitrate(NO3) perhaps once or twice. Once you've proven that everything is stable and the bacteria have not been disturbed by their move and the tank is still operating with zero ppm ammonia, zero ppm nitrite(NO2) and a nitrate(NO3) level that not more than 20 or 30ppm above tap level, then your ready for your first fish increase. Only increase the fish a few at a time. Perhaps add 4 neons first. If you lose one or two, as sometimes happens when transferring neons, you'll be able to add more when you get your next 3 neons a few weeks later. The a few weeks after that add a couple lemons and so on. Each of these small additions will allow your bacteria time to catch up!

The weight of the tank materials is pretty insignificant compared to the weight of the water held. If you are doubtful at all about the sturdyness of your support materials, get more opinions from qualified people. No one wants a collapse.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waterdrop]

Oh dear! We hobbyists hate to discourage any tank acquisitions! But I suppose the inconvenience of all the moves during the "dorm" years makes it tough...

The 12 USgallon would weight about 100 US pounds, so if that's about what you weigh you could sit yourself on the proposed spot and wiggle around a bit to feel if its flexing too much, that would be one type of test...

We have members on TFF who really like the biowheels (and they are a good concept, making use of wet/dry principle where bacteria get more oxygen) but I'm often bothered by their inflexibility. There's a lot to be said for the very general and open trays in a big cannister filter, allowing you to do all sorts of media moves.

We need some other members to comment here. I'm somehow getting confused trying to understand your plan. I'm picturing you moving all the current fish to the twelve along with the floating biowheel but then having an entirely new and uncycled filter running that you're trying to cycle via bacteria jumping from the floating biowheel to the new biowheel. The problem with this is that the floating biowheel will not be getting enough oxygen because its not moving, so the bactera on it will die back. Meanwhile it will take a long time for the new filter to cycle and I wonder about the health of the fish during this period, unless you just treat it like a fish-in cycle. But maybe I'm picturing it all wrong!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[johnnyjohnson]

i had a similar issue with a bio wheel being the wrong size a while back. the wheel that came with the used filter was too small, i cut a couple of small pieces of airline tubing and put them over the little tits coming off oth sides of the bio wheel, this lenghtened the bio wheel and it fit perfectly in the new filter housing. as long as the wheel turns freely on its own due to contacting the water you should be fine. If there is abig gap to make up you may need to do something else. I dont know if the capacity of the bio wheel is a issue for you or not, i had less than a inch difference on each side.

 

[HYJ]

What you are thinking is correct.

The MarineLand salesperson says I wouldn't be able to insert the current biowheel from 5 gallon into the eclipse 12 gallon, thus he suggested that I should just leave the 5G biowheel floating on the surface of eclipse 12.

However it seems like that's not going to help much according to your statement.

Since I am graduating after a year or so, I think I just should stick with the 5G for now and get 20G or something later and get all different types of tetras.

Oh dear! We hobbyists hate to discourage any tank acquisitions! But I suppose the inconvenience of all the moves during the "dorm" years makes it tough...

The 12 USgallon would weight about 100 US pounds, so if that's about what you weigh you could sit yourself on the proposed spot and wiggle around a bit to feel if its flexing too much, that would be one type of test...

We have members on TFF who really like the biowheels (and they are a good concept, making use of wet/dry principle where bacteria get more oxygen) but I'm often bothered by their inflexibility. There's a lot to be said for the very general and open trays in a big cannister filter, allowing you to do all sorts of media moves.

We need some other members to comment here. I'm somehow getting confused trying to understand your plan. I'm picturing you moving all the current fish to the twelve along with the floating biowheel but then having an entirely new and uncycled filter running that you're trying to cycle via bacteria jumping from the floating biowheel to the new biowheel. The problem with this is that the floating biowheel will not be getting enough oxygen because its not moving, so the bactera on it will die back. Meanwhile it will take a long time for the new filter to cycle and I wonder about the health of the fish during this period, unless you just treat it like a fish-in cycle. But maybe I'm picturing it all wrong!

~~waterdrop~~