Question on new tank

[Kelly Preussner]

I have had fish for a few years now in a 20 gal tank. No issues for years & had different fish at different times. Right now it is a guppy tank with 2 black mollies. I had too many fish and decided to go to a bigger tank so got a 29 gallon tank. I was planning to do a slow introduction but somehow cracked my 20 gallon & had to empty it. So I ended up putting my gravel & plants & decorations in the new tank plus some new gravel & new plants. I was able to save about 15 gallons of water & put that in the new tank. I made a makeshift tank out of a bucket for my fish for a few days to let the new tank try to cycle a bit. I then added the fish slowly over 2 more days but couldn’t keep them in the bucket much longer.
So… it has been about 1.5 weeks and my fish are all still alive but my nitrates are still at 0. My ammonia, nitrite are also at 0. PH is good. The water is a bit cloudy. Should I do a partial water change or continue to let the beneficial bacteria keep growing? Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

Did you transfer the old filter into the new tank?
If yes you don't need to cycle it because the beneficial filter bacteria is already in the filter.

You can start doing water changes now, 50-75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you ever need to move the fish into a new aquarium, just move the gravel, ornaments, plants and filter into the new tank with some of the old water. Add the fish then top it up with dechlorinated water.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

Did you transfer the old filter into the new tank?
If yes you don't need to cycle it because the beneficial filter bacteria is already in the filter.

You can start doing water changes now, 50-75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you ever need to move the fish into a new aquarium, just move the gravel, ornaments, plants and filter into the new tank with some of the old water. Add the fish then top it up with dechlorinated water.

Thank you. The new filter was a different size but I did hang the old filter on the new tank for about 1/2 day. I did use old gravel, ornaments & plants as well as old water. Just strange that nitrate is still 0. Should I maybe just do 25% water change & clean substrate?

 

[Colin_T]

If you kept the old filter media wet, you can put that in the new filter so the tank doesn't cycle again.

If you aren't feeding a lot of food the nitrates won't go up that quickly. And if you have all new filter media (materials) then you will need to cycle the tank and it will take a few days to a week before you get an ammonia reading and a month or so before you get nitrates.

If you want to do a 25% water change you can. I prefer bigger water changes because they dilute things more effectively.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

If you kept the old filter media wet, you can put that in the new filter so the tank doesn't cycle again.

If you aren't feeding a lot of food the nitrates won't go up that quickly. And if you have all new filter media (materials) then you will need to cycle the tank and it will take a few days to a week before you get an ammonia reading and a month or so before you get nitrates.

If you want to do a 25% water change you can. I prefer bigger water changes because they dilute things more effectively.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Unfortunately the old filter is gone now. I don’t feed a lot of food. I will try to do a 50% water change. I just didn’t want to take out too much beneficial bacteria. Thanks

 

[Naughts]

The bacteria are not in the water, they are on hard surfaces, the filter media in particular but also in the substrate.