Tank Upgrade Advice?

[FurFinFeathers]

Hey everyone so at the moment I have a 10 gallon tropical fish tank and I want to upgrade to a 20 gallon but I don't want to restart the ammonia cycle is there away to do that? Please respond.

 

[fluttermoth]

Will you be moving all the fish from the ten gallon to the twenty?

 

[Livewire88]

 
If you have a new filter with your 20g you can remove the media from the filter in the 10g and put it in the new filter for your 20g, you will then have a instantly cycled filter. But bear in mind the filter will only be able to process the same size bio load that was being produced in your 10g tank. 
 
If you want to add more fish to your 20g do it gradually.

 

[FurFinFeathers]

Yes I want to switch per the fish from the ten to the twenty but how do I transfer filter media? Should I get new gravel and water and such or just take it out of the ten and put it into the twenty?

 

[Livewire88]

Just remove the media from the filter in the 10 and put that dirty (cycled) media in the filter that you are using in the 20. 
 
You can also swap the gravel, but using new gravel should not cause any issues. The majority of bacteria lives in the filter. 
Just watch your water stats for a week or two to be on the safe side. 

 

[FurFinFeathers]

Do I put the fish in right away or wait or the stats to level? Do I add new water or transfer the old? Won't the filter media be too small for the bigger filter?

 

[Livewire88]

You can put the fish straight in, use fresh dechlorinated water.
 
Add the mature filter media along with what came with the new filter, you may have to remove some of the new media so the mature media fits in. Then over a short period of time the bacteria will spread over the new media. 

 

[FurFinFeathers]

Should I expect any ammonia readings at first? I also want to pass the ten gallon to my sister will any of this affect her ammonia cycling?

 

[Livewire88]

If you want to share the mature media between your new tank and your old tank the bacteria will need to time to build back up in each filter to the level that is required to support the bio load created by each tank.
 
In this time just check your ammonia/nitrite levels every day and if required do big water changes to deal with any spikes. The filers will soon build up the required level of bacteria so just keep an eye on your stats.