Tank Upgrade

[holidayinn]

Hi All

Been at this aquarium lark for a while now, but i'd still consider myself a newbie. Many people mention that they plan to upgrade their tank. But how do they actually, practically make the move?

If I was to upgrade from my 4 footer to a much bigger 5 footer (in approx 5 months) what steps would I need to take?

I’ve never done this before so this is a brief list of steps I made myself. Is there anything missing or wrong order? Any adjustments? I did search for this, but the search function isn’t the greatest imo.

1 – Turn everything off.
2 – Take existing fish out, put in bucket or keep with lfs for duration of upgrade.
3 – Take out heater, fix to new tank. Setup existing filters for new tank. (planning on purchasing another filter soon, attach it to existing tank for 5 months (will be cycled), then both filters together should be able to filter the larger capacity tank???)
4 – Move the gravel from one tank to another.
5 – Siphon the water from one tank to another. (not sure which step out of 4 and 5 should be done first)
6 – Decorate tank. Add some dechlorinated water on day 1. Turn everything on. Reintroduce fish.
7 – Add more water day 2.
8 – Add final amount of water day 3 to bring tank full volume.
9 – 30-40% water change on day 4.

Like I said, I’ve never done this before, just anticipate I will be doing it soon. Any suggestions are most welcome.

 

[ox5477]

well it really isnt too difficult. A question, your using the tank length but this cant really be used as an ample describer as there many tanks that have the same length and very different volumes. So... what volume do you have now and what will you be upgrading to?

Your process seems fine if your planning on putting the new tank in the spot that the old tank currently occupies. If they will be in different spots... I would say just xfer everything over to the new tank and top off with new water and it will be just like a water change.... just make sure if your going increasingly larger, that you have enough power in your heater(s) and that your filters are processing atleast 4-6x turnover.

Ox

 

[Miss Wiggle]

It’s pretty straight forward, can be done in a couple of hrs

You catch fish and put them in a bucket, cover it over
Remove all décor from the tank and drain it
Remove tank and put it somewhere ready to store/dispose etc
Put new tank into place, set up equipment filters heaters etc, put old filter onto the new tank – DO NOT TURN POWER ON
Add dechlor to the tank, fill it with water to somewhere near full
Turn equipment on
Add substrate, décor etc etc to the new tank
Wait an hr or so until the heaters have got the tank up to temp (can just add some hot water if you like)
Put fish into the new tank

Providing you don’t go and add a load of new fish straight away there won’t be a cycle, the existing filter is good enough to cope with the current fish load and the fish load isn’t changing, the volume of water makes no odds as long as there is adequate circulation and cos you’ve the old and new filters on the tank there will be plenty.

 

[holidayinn]

Wow, that was quick!! Thanks for your replies.

Right now the volume of the tank is approx 37 gallons, it measures 4*1*1.5(height) foot. The tank i will be moving to would be a 5 footer, over 100 gallons. And its going exact same spot old one was.

My main concern was related to the question asked about volume. Would adding such a large amount (nearly 2 times) of dechlor water affect the media or filtration of teh tank? Can i simply do this large water change and put the fish back in?

Wont add loads of new fish in one go, actually thinking of keeping an Oscar, and have learnt that even after a fishless cycle IME that the slower the stocking the better for all.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no, adding new dechlorinated water won't bugger up the filtration or anything like that, it's just a massive water change basically which while it's not an every day thing, won't do any harm.

 

[OldMan47]

MW didn't come right out and say it so I will. There is no reason to move water from one tank to the other. All new water in the new tank will be fine. Last weekend I decided to move a 150 gallon stock tank that I am using as a summer growing pond. It has a filter in it that can lay flat on the bottom without any problems. What I did was remove enough water that I could wrestle the tank around by myself so you can imagine there wasn't much water left. I just left the fish in it. When I had it where I wanted it I added water back in one 5 gallon bucket at a time, dechlorinated and temperature matched of course, until it was full. Today, a day and a half after the move, I found the fish swimming around after their 90% water change just as happy as a lark. I even found a molly that had gone missing 2 weeks ago. I guess I just couldn't see him in the dirty water that was building up in my pond before the move.

 

[holidayinn]

Thanks OldMan Ox and MW...I was a touch unsure whether MW was serious about draining the tank water away, i had originally thought as everyone recommends not to clean a filter in tap water that it might be unwise to introduce loads of 'new' water to the filter, plus when people mention they have mature filter media and gravel, they are still advised that their tank will still need to cycle

I guess what ur saying is that all the beneficila bacteria are in the filter and the gravel not the water...so in the end its just a 'big' water change to get rid of nitrates

 

[Bungy]

Thanks OldMan Ox and MW...I was a touch unsure whether MW was serious about draining the tank water away, i had originally thought as everyone recommends not to clean a filter in tap water that it might be unwise to introduce loads of 'new' water to the filter, plus when people mention they have mature filter media and gravel, they are still advised that their tank will still need to cycle

I guess what ur saying is that all the beneficila bacteria are in the filter and the gravel not the water...so in the end its just a 'big' water change to get rid of nitrates

You got it buddy. As long as you add your De-Chlorinator in the correct quantities, normal tap water should be fine as long as you are not performing any "buffering" of your PH in your current setup - your new tank setup should be as near as poss PH as your old water otherwise your stock will suffer - especially if going from Low to High PH change, not as critical the other way.

Hope this helps.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks OldMan Ox and MW...I was a touch unsure whether MW was serious about draining the tank water away, i had originally thought as everyone recommends not to clean a filter in tap water that it might be unwise to introduce loads of 'new' water to the filter, plus when people mention they have mature filter media and gravel, they are still advised that their tank will still need to cycle

I guess what ur saying is that all the beneficila bacteria are in the filter and the gravel not the water...so in the end its just a 'big' water change to get rid of nitrates

got it in one!

 

[holidayinn]

Thanks All. And now the time has come a lot sooner then initially anticipated. Slight change of plan as my mum is now suggesting on keeping two tanks. So tonight do a large water change so that I can slide the tank in the next room (wooden flooring).

Friday I pick up a used RIO 400. It is all up and running with an Eheim professional filter and two internal filters.
My plan is to store the two internal filters in a bucket of tank water and I’m not going to drain the professional filter.
Similarly store the gravel and rocks in buckets with a little tank water.

Transport everything home asap and set up the tank, attach the heater and fill up with dechlorinated water, bring to temperature and connect/turn on the filters.

This is my ‘schedule’, any suggestions? Anything to look out for?
With the eheim professional filter, when I get it home, will I have to empty it? then prime it with the dechlor water?

Many thanks for your help and advice.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds fine to me, just make sure you add the dechlor before the water or dechlor the water in a bucket before you add it to the tank.

the eheim you should be able to 'close off' the hoses with it full of tank water, then you can just rig it up on the new tank, plug it in and prime it and you shouldn't need to fill it up or anything. but yes if you do need to re-fill it make sure you do it with dechlorinated water.

 

[holidayinn]

Hello Everybody

Just an update and a question..

Friday evening moved the 400 litre tank into living room, the previous owner had left the filters running as long as possible, then the internals were stored in a bucket of tank water and the cannister was full of tank water. this was all transported and setup again asap..I added ammonia that evening and by morning there was no sign of ammonia, nitrite but a fair amount of nitrates...after this i added a few smaller fish and a pleco from my other tank to maintain the filters..once i have decided what to stock the tank with the smaller fish will go back in the 4 footer (if i can catch them)

My question relates water changes, i have tried to use the search funtion, but it doesnt seem to be working today...I want to put warm water from my tap into the tank...i could use a connector to the tap and from there a hosepipe. I am concerned about the metals and minerals that are present in warm tap water...i read somewhere about the use of NovAqua which 'detoxifies heavy metals and is capable of eliminating free copper'. I also heard that this can buffer the ph, so if you do start using it it will stress the fish when/if you dont...

I went into my local petsathome today and saw the description on dechlorinators such as nutrafin-aquaplus, tetra-aqua, it had a similar description, in that it reduces minerals and metals...

If i was to put in warm water from the tap (live in UK) into the tank, would i have to use a product such as NovAqua as well as a dechlorinator? If so, i think NovAqua is a US product, is there a UK alternative?

Also, I have heard many people suggest Prime as a dechlorinator. Would you be of the same opinion?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, my personal take on this is to just use the tap water in all its forms, cold or hot. I do it all the time, mixing up just the right temp using that tap and letting it flow right into the tank via my Python. I use Prime as my conditioner product.

Be warned that if you want to get technical about it, I believe this too has sometimes been one of those topics on TFF that can get controversial with the experienced hobbyists. Certainly there can be a lot of variation in the different qualities of water heating systems in homes. I can't say that we won't all come to a different and perhaps better conclusion about this (this may in fact be an area where I'm a naive beginner!) but for now I've joined the ranks of those who happily mix in some hot water from the tap and don't worry about it. In my TFF reading, it seemed like a lot of others do that too.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[holidayinn]

Thanks Waterdrop

I think the most difficult thing and scary thing for 'beginners' about keeping fish is having to do the water changes, i have been using a method where i boil a kettle of water and mix it in a bucket of cold water with dechlor. For a 120 gallon tank this took ages to fill up and bring to temperature..Now that i have two tanks i dont really want to spend a whole evening putting water back into my tank, siphoning it out (gravel vac) doesnt take long at all

a simple method such as putting the dechlor in a bucket of warm water, placing this into the tank and then filling the rest with a hosepipe (matching temp) would be much easier and less stressful for the fish

 

[bricko]

Hi Holidayinn, on the topic of water changes, I have never actually mixed warm water with colder water to try to match the tank temperature so I am by no means an expert. I do a weekly 25% water change using RO water that has sat at room temperature for 24 - 48 hours previous and never really experienced a drastic drop in tank temperature. The tank sits around 25 - 26C almost constantly. I suppose this could be different if you were to perform more larger scale water changes but that isn't something I would do regularly. I think your kettle method must be VERY time consuming and (at least in my oppinion) unneccesary.

Anyway good luck with the new setup, post some pics when its done.

I wish I could fit a 400l tank in my living room , I can barely fit my 260l in