Thinking Of Upgrading To A Bigger Tank

[Jo Booth]

Hi Guys

Back in October '07, I treated myself to a 40litre tropical tank thinking that I wanted something small, modern in appearance with a select number of lovely colourful fish and an odd plant or 2. Oh what a mistake !

I am hooked!!! I love watching the fish, have enjoyed every minute of decorating the tank, maintenance, telling people all about it and reading this forum. So now having got hooked b the hobby, I am thinking of perhaps upgrading to a bigger tank, perhaps tice the size of my current tank, maybe even bigger but I would think aroud 100-10litres would be around the biggest I could fit into the living room.

My question then is this. Having gone through the cyling process with my current tank, how would I go about transferring the contents of this to a new tank? Would I have to set up the new tank and fishless cycle as before or as I have a cycled tank could I transfer the contents to the new tank and then top up with water, placing my mature filter media into the new filter??

Sorry if this sounds silly but none of the books give advice on upgrading !!!!

Many Thanks in advance

Jo

 

[smmetz]

I would do this. Take 2/3 of the water out of your 40 liter, put it in your new tank. Put all decorations in the new tank. Catch fish, put them in new tank. Float old filter media in new tank. Put rest of old tank water in new tank. Fill new tank the rest of the way with tap water, dechlorinated of course. Try to keep the temp about the same, but don't go nuts over a degree or two difference. When the new tank is filled, put old filter on, and put floated filter media back in it, turn it on.

At this point, you have the same amount of fish, producing the same amount of waste, with the same mature filter media to process it. There should be no cycle necessary.

If your old filter is too small to clean your new tank well, then install the new filter. You can run both the old and the new filters together for a while (I would say 2-4 weeks?). This will give time for some bacteria to start growing in your new filter. When you remove the old filter, I would not feed the fish that day, so they produce less waste, and you have less of a chance of a "mini-cylce".

Another approach you can try is putting the mature filter media from your old filter into the new filter. Depending on the filters you are working with, this might be very easy to do. Then, you can pack away the small filter, since it's mature filter media is in your new, larger filter. (along with additional filter media from the new filter) After a month or so, take the old filter media out, leaving only the filter media that came with the new, larger filter.

 

[shroob]

Hi Guys

Back in October '07, I treated myself to a 40litre tropical tank thinking that I wanted something small, modern in appearance with a select number of lovely colourful fish and an odd plant or 2. Oh what a mistake !

I am hooked!!! I love watching the fish, have enjoyed every minute of decorating the tank, maintenance, telling people all about it and reading this forum. So now having got hooked b the hobby, I am thinking of perhaps upgrading to a bigger tank, perhaps tice the size of my current tank, maybe even bigger but I would think aroud 100-10litres would be around the biggest I could fit into the living room.

My question then is this. Having gone through the cyling process with my current tank, how would I go about transferring the contents of this to a new tank? Would I have to set up the new tank and fishless cycle as before or as I have a cycled tank could I transfer the contents to the new tank and then top up with water, placing my mature filter media into the new filter??

Sorry if this sounds silly but none of the books give advice on upgrading !!!!

Many Thanks in advance

Jo

You can add the old, mature media into the new filter on the new tank and it will be fine. I've done this numerous times with no problem. During the transfer try and make it as fast as possible (if your setting up the new tank in the same space then you have to remove all water, fish, substrate etc. takes abit of time thats all). Try and keep the media wet in tank water, this helps I think. Ofcourse if the new tank is going in a different location then all you have to do is simply switch over, no time at all, no hassle pretty much instant

 

[Jo Booth]

thanks for your quick replies.

I have also toyed with the idea of changing the gravel substrate that I currently have to sand - would this cause any problems or should I keep the gravel and buy extra of the same to cover the larger tank base?

Thanks

JO

 

[shroob]

Up to you what substrate you use, the only thing with sand is to make sure you wash it before putting it in. I forgot once in the hurry to set up a tank, regretted it pretty soon I can tell you. Some people believe that sand compacts and forms 'gas bubbles' that if released can harm fish. To prevent this people say stir up your sand when you do a water change. I don't know how much of this is true as theres arguements for and against, but I always like to be safe anyway.

 

[Jo Booth]

thank you - great advice again

Jo

 

[loachman]

If you are just upgrading, you can take everything from the old and put it into the new tank and be fine.

The filter media in the old tank is established to the point it can hand your number of fish. If the fish number doesn't change, you'll be fine. Test the water after the swap for a few days to be sure, but any cycle will be minimal.

Just be sure you don't let the filter dry out at all. Keep it in moving tank water as much as possible.

Unless you have a undergravel filter, you can change between sand/gravel without any problems. You may want to set up the tank with the new substrate a couple days early as fresh sand can be messy w/o a thorough rinse.

 

[billy0510]

changing your substrate will not effect you beneficial bacteria much most of it is in your filter. You can also run your new filter in you old tank for a while to get your bio load into your new filter all while your setting up your new tank. Depends on your situation if the tanks going in the same spot etc. Good Luck all the advise giving in this post is great advise.

 

[Behold]

I just upgraded from a 100l to a 500l. I ran my new filter and my old together putting one bit of media in the new filter to allow it to build up fast.

I empted about 2/3 of the water and moved my fish in to the water and then added the rest of the water.

Moved out my old tank and in with the new.

added 2/3 of my old water back in to the new tanks and added a the same amount in declored water at temp.

then added my fish. (Water was shallow but not terrible) then added the other 1/3 of old water and added 1/3

I then added anothe set of declor water to make a 33/66 split of Old and New. then left it for a day and added another 33% each day till full so the water PH and stuff settled each time.

All my fish are happy and running around. Also i saw no spikes in ammonia or nitrite.