"new" Tank, "old" Media

[SimonP]

Hi, new to the forum but have read a few threads thanks to Google over the last few years!
 
Basically, I have two tanks.  One 60 litre tank, one 30 litre tank.
 
Up until last week, the 60 litre tank housed two goldfish and was set up as a cold water tank, they have since died (after 4 years, which I thought was a short time to be honest, but weekly 20% water changes seemed to keep them happy for that time) and I want to move my community of tropical fish from the smaller tank into the larger one
 
I have cleaned the larger one out, and thrown away the filter that came with it as it was far too powerful and would have sucked up my tropicals.  I have added a heater and a new filter.  
 
The filter in my tropical tank is a three stage filter, with foam, carbon sachet, and some "rocks" (sorry, I completely forget the right term!).  The filter in my new tank is a simple foam filter.  I have moved the foam from the tropical filter into the new filter in the new tank.  I have also used around 10% water from the tropical tank added to the other 90% of de-chlorinated water to the new tank.
 
My queries are....
 
Will this filter media be enough to simply now transfer my community over?  Will I then gain anything from floating the "rock" section of the current tropical filter in the new tank?  
 
I aim to move my plants from my tropical tank too, as well as the rocks which my tropicals love!
 
Incidentally, my tropical community is a male fighting fish, 5 neon tetras, and an albino catfish.

 

[sawickib]

Hi welcome to TFF!
 
If the old media housed all those fish, then for the most part it wiill be able to hold their entire load if you transfer them over, it would help with the substrate as well, sorry i have to go atm some one else will be able to go into further detail.

 

[Ch4rlie]

 to the Forum.
 
I would simply move all of the media from the smaller tank filter to the new filter if you can.
The 'rocks' i assume is something like ceramics media, fit them inside the filter would be best.
 
Moving all the decor, plants, rocks and substrate would help a lot.
 
Adding 10% water from old to new tank won't do much actually.
 
And one last note, does your betta get on with the tetras? 
Usually bettas do best on own as they can be aggressive towards others in the tank.

 

[SimonP]

thanks for the replies guys
 
yeah, the betta gets on fine with everyone else in the tank.  he sometimes gets a bit territorial at feeding time and chases them away, but then he's too busy at the top feeding while they catch all the food that has started to sink.  They're learning just to wait - or be VERY quick!!  he's quite a placid fellow the rest of the time though, but responds to me going over to the tank and will often swim to the front glass to say hello when I speak to him (the food goes in at the back so assuming he's a friend rather than just hungry!)
 
yes, the "rocks" are ceramics, but they won't fit into the new filter unless I cut the sponge VERY small
 
I will move as much of the gravel and substrate over as possible too - having done a bit more reading, I'll also transfer all my rocks without cleaning them too

 

[fluttermoth]

You'll just have to cut the sponge very small then!

You do really need to move all the old media to the new filter, if you're not to lose too many bacteria; you will already be losing some in the substrate/decor, unless you move all that too, and if you lose too many, your cycle will be compromised.

I don't think I have a sponge anywhere, in any of my filters, that hasn't been chopped up!

 

[SimonP]

for now, I've rested the ceramic on top of the new filter
 
that too will have to be cut to fit in the new filter so I figure having it around the place will help even if it's not actually involved in the filtration process immediately?
 
moved a little substrate but not a lot, perhaps 25%

 

[Ch4rlie]

for now, I've rested the ceramic on top of the new filter
 
that too will have to be cut to fit in the new filter so I figure having it around the place will help even if it's not actually involved in the filtration process immediately?
 
moved a little substrate but not a lot, perhaps 25%

 
Really is best to put the ceramic inside the filter, the bacteria on the ceramics need to have their 'food' / ammonia delivered to them and the filter will do just that inside.
 
Bacterias grows on substrate too, so the more substrate, the more bacteria you move to the new tank, the better.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, it really does need to be in the filter. Far more important to look after your old media, with its precious bacteria, than anything new. It's your fish's life support system.

Once everything is stable in the new tank, you can start replacing the old media with the new (no more than a quarter at one time though) if you want to, but right now you need it all in there.

 

[SimonP]

I have the sponge from the old filter inside the new one, would you advise cutting that in half and adding half of the ceramics?

 

[SimonP]

so I've moved the majority of the fish back to the old tank which had kept running, for the time being
 
the fighter isn't looking bothered by anything, but nitrates and nitrites were a bit high and the neons were gasping quite a bit at the top of the water (even following a 20% water change).  the old tank's water quality is still spot on, and they look a lot happier in there again.
 
will keep an eye on things and hopefully the fighter combined with the old filter media will see off the nitrate spike after a couple of days and we can start moving some neons across slowly

 

[Ch4rlie]

Imho, i think if you're seeing any levels of nitrite and ammonia above 0.5ppm, i'd suggest at least 50% to 75% water changes rather than just 20%.
 
For example, say you have 1ppm ammonia in the tank, so doing a 20% change will still leave 0.8ppm ammonia in the tank which is still a dangerous level for your tank stocking, changing 75% will leave 0.25ppm ammonia which tank stocking can cope with short term, and so on and so forth.
 
So do check what your ammonia and nitrite levels are on a daily basis and do water changes accordingly until the mini cycle or spikes are settled and the bacteria colony is back to strength.

 

[SimonP]

Would you recommend that I stock more generously in order to get the bacteria back to strength?
 
Can ceramics be used without a net inside a filter?  I can't think of any reason why not, but wanted to be sure - the filter is contained so they won't escape

 

[Ch4rlie]

Would not recommend stocking more generously. This would not help in getting bacteria back to strength any quicker, in fact think could cause some problems.
 
And yes ceramics can be inside the filter without a net, although this make its more tricky to do maintenance cleans when you need to get rid of gunk that may build up on the ceramic media.

 

[SimonP]

I did a 50% water change and added the ceramics into the new filter
 
Nitrites and Nitrates as well as ammonia have gone down to less than 25% of their previous levels
 
will keep doing 12 hourly checks and water changes if necessary but hoping it was an early spike that I've handled now.  Rest of the fish still in the old tank with absolutely perfect water

 

[SimonP]

just an update
 
water was near perfect conditions this morning so decided tonight I would move a few fish across again.  tested again at five PM and it was still very good, so moved three over.  will be testing again around midnight and then 7am before deciding on whether or not to move more over tomorrow evening, and repeat!