Transferring To A Bigger Tank

[Fishywonder]

Hi I'm new here so hello!

Hoping you can help. Our son has a tropical tank in his bedroom which he loves. Just a community tank so nothing fancy but he gets great enjoyment from it. Saturday it started leaking, from underneath we think. Anyway not wanting to risk his precious fish (there would be tears - he's only 7) we have bought a second hand one which is 100l.

Can I just check with you guys that I am going about the transfer right? Would hate to upset the bacteria balance.
Been and bought five 12l buckets (current tank is 60l and we already have one 12l bucket that we use for water changes)

Now what I plan to do is siphon the water out of the tank into the buckets, catching the fish and transferring them safely into a bucket before all the water is gone lol.
The new tank came with some gravel but this has been out of water for two weeks and I don't know if it was washed in fresh water or tank water. Anyway put the new gravel in then transfer the gravel from the old tank to the new tank without washing it.

Fill the new tanks from the buckets. Transfer the stingray filter from the old tank to the new tank and install the fluval 2 plus that came with the new tank (this to allow the bacteria to build up in the fluval without levels going haywire) install heater, pump etc. Introduce 10l of fresh treated water and check temperature. Introduce fish and then add the remaining water that the fish were in.
Total volume of water at the end would be 70l.

Now I am planning on leaving it like that for a couple of days then adding another 10l of treated fresh water, continuing like this every couple of days until the full 100l is full. Is this right? Don't want to stress the fish or do you not think its neccessary or am I prolonging it? Just seams quite a lot of fresh water for them, nearly 50%, in one go on top of a tank change. They are used to 10l water change weekly.

How long would I need to run both filters for?

Thanks for your help

 

[fishies101]

Well if what you are saying is you are cycling your new tank than cycle the tank for however long you have read it to be but first the filter you probably should let the tank sit for a few days when you start cycling and then after those few days into cycling you add the filter and continue to cycle probably should have it turned on when cycling just incase i dunno that part. thats is what i did.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

I have upgraded my tanks a few times now and most have been big jumps. I went from 33 liters to 125 liters, then 125 liters to 240 liters and lastly 240 liters to 512 liters... lol I must be mad....

What kind of filter do you have at the moment? And what does the 100 liter have?

How many fish have you got to move and what kinds? If you dont know names try and get pictures up or even descriptions can work sometimes

Each time I have done it in one go so I move all the water from the old tank to the new tank via buckets then move the filters and heater + any decoration or substrate I want to move. Between this I catch all the fish and put them in a bucket and then release them into the new tank asap.

Your main concern is getting the filter swapped over into water and turned on as soon as you can. I aim for 20 mins when cleaning a filter or moving one though you can go longer without damage its just a figure I find feasible to work with. If you think it might take a while longer get the filter into one of the buckets and plug in.

With the new tank, I would give the substrate in there a really really good wash tap water will be fine and you could even dechlorniate it to be 100% safe though its not always necessary. Just make sure you get all the old waste off it as if its been out of water all the good bacteria in there will have gone and the detritus will be rotting which is not good for a new tank.

Wills

 

[Fish4]

Hi,all sounds good. If you wish, just fill it up with temp-matched de-clorinated water, it will be fine.
If the "new" filter has been used before and then been out of water for a while, it may have gone off. If so i would clean it out before it goes in your new tank.

 

[Fishywonder]

Hi welcome to the forum

I have upgraded my tanks a few times now and most have been big jumps. I went from 33 liters to 125 liters, then 125 liters to 240 liters and lastly 240 liters to 512 liters... lol I must be mad....

What kind of filter do you have at the moment? And what does the 100 liter have?

How many fish have you got to move and what kinds? If you dont know names try and get pictures up or even descriptions can work sometimes

Each time I have done it in one go so I move all the water from the old tank to the new tank via buckets then move the filters and heater + any decoration or substrate I want to move. Between this I catch all the fish and put them in a bucket and then release them into the new tank asap.

Your main concern is getting the filter swapped over into water and turned on as soon as you can. I aim for 20 mins when cleaning a filter or moving one though you can go longer without damage its just a figure I find feasible to work with. If you think it might take a while longer get the filter into one of the buckets and plug in.

With the new tank, I would give the substrate in there a really really good wash tap water will be fine and you could even dechlorniate it to be 100% safe though its not always necessary. Just make sure you get all the old waste off it as if its been out of water all the good bacteria in there will have gone and the detritus will be rotting which is not good for a new tank.

Wills

Hi and thanks

512litres! Wow that's some tank! Would love to see a pic ;-)

The filter in the current tank that's leaking is a Elite Stingray, I've since found out they are not good but we have had this tank for a few years and it's been ok for us - we had it as a cold water tank until recently. The new tank has an internal Fluval 2+, I know it's only rated up to 90l I am hoping it will be ok as we have not got messy diry fish - its the filter that came with the tank, do you think we should buy a bigger one? We are having to buy a bigger heater tomorrow as the one that came with the tank is only 75w and I have read we nead 150w.

Right now the fish: we have 3 x guppies 10 x guppie fry in a little breeding chamber 3 x guppie endlers 2 x balloon mollies 4 x normal mollies 5 x neons 1 x black Kuli loach and one little catfish that looks like a pled but does not grow as big.

So we are just about at full capacity for the current 60l so bacteria working well.

I was wondering how long the bacteria in the filter would survive out of water so thanks for that. There will also be bacteria on the gravel we transfer over from the old tank as well as the plants/ornaments etc

I used to keep Ceylon Puffers which are REALLY messy, but this was some while ago and my confidence has gone a bit as they are my sons fish and it will be all Mummy's fault if anything happens to them so hope you don't mind me checking.

 

[Wills]

Ah right ok that sounds okay for now.

I'll be honest I would be tempted to get a different filter and transfer all your sponges and media to the chamber of the new filter that is rated for 20 gallon tanks.

But wait to do all of this until you have the equipment bought though.

Your tank is about right numbers for the 100 liter tank, you may get away with a few more Khulis which would be a good thing. The Fluval internal filters are a good option for this tank so maybe look at the U3 which is what Fluval sells with its 125 liter tank. Also if your looking for new equipment check out ebay, gumtree and aquarist classified - the classifieds at the bottom of this forum is good as well.

Wills

 

[Fishywonder]

Thanks Fish4 would not had thought of that, was worried about diseases but presumed anything would have died being out of the water for so long.

Wills thanks again. We have discussed it this morning and are going to go for a U3 as well, no point getting the bacteria going in the fluval 2+ if it's not really up for the job. Have checked on line and a local fish shop (not where we would buy fish from I hasten to add) has them for £32.95, can only find them a pound cheaper on eBay so buying from the shop at least I have somewhere to go if it goes wrong. (when I was young I had a fry tank, the thermostat when wrong and they all boiled - not a pretty sight! )

Thanks again for everyone's help

 

[Fishywonder]

Right we have now carried out the change over to the bigger 100l tank having bought a new Fluval U3 filter and 100w heater which does up to 150l tanks.

Unfortunately I could not fit the filter media from the elite stingray which was in the original tank into the fluval so have the two filters running side by side.

My question is, how long do we need to keep the stingray running for to allow the bacteria to build up in the fluval?

Fish are looking very happy, at the moment anyway!

 

[Fish4]

Right we have now carried out the change over to the bigger 100l tank having bought a new Fluval U3 filter and 100w heater which does up to 150l tanks.

Unfortunately I could not fit the filter media from the elite stingray which was in the original tank into the fluval so have the two filters running side by side.

My question is, how long do we need to keep the stingray running for to allow the bacteria to build up in the fluval?

Fish are looking very happy, at the moment anyway!

I would think it's going to take a number of weeks for the new filter to become established. If you could prime it by washing the existing filter sponges through the new one's that could help a little. I would leave it to settle down for a week before doing that though.

 

[Fishywonder]

Right we have now carried out the change over to the bigger 100l tank having bought a new Fluval U3 filter and 100w heater which does up to 150l tanks.

Unfortunately I could not fit the filter media from the elite stingray which was in the original tank into the fluval so have the two filters running side by side.

My question is, how long do we need to keep the stingray running for to allow the bacteria to build up in the fluval?

Fish are looking very happy, at the moment anyway!

I would think it's going to take a number of weeks for the new filter to become established. If you could prime it by washing the existing filter sponges through the new one's that could help a little. I would leave it to settle down for a week before doing that though.

Thanks fish4, numpty question how do I go about washing the existing filter sponges through the new ones?

 

[Fish4]

If you could remove the exixting filter sponges and squeeze them out into the new filter.
The actual sponges hardly ever need renewing, just clean filter sponges by rinsing them in some removed tank water when cleaning the tank or doing water changes.
This only needs doing when the flow is restricted by excess build up in the filter media.

 

[Fishywonder]

If you could remove the exixting filter sponges and squeeze them out into the new filter.
The actual sponges hardly ever need renewing, just clean filter sponges by rinsing them in some removed tank water when cleaning the tank or doing water changes.
This only needs doing when the flow is restricted by excess build up in the filter media.

Ah ok that makes sense, thanks, will leave it a week as you say

 

[Fishywonder]

Hi sorry, me again!

Just been reading another thread and one of the responses has got me worried.

The other thread was asking about running a new filter in and estabished cycled tank for a few weeks before transferring to a new tank.

Someone responded saying that only enough bacteria will grow to support the number of fish, my interpretation of this is the bacteria will be spilt between the two filters.

So in the case of my sons tank where I have a cycled original filter running along side a new fluval filter the bacteria grown will only be enough to deal with the waste of the fish and spilt across the two filters. Once I remove the old filter in a few weeks there will only be half the bacteria left in the fluval filter therefore possible causing a mini cycle. Have I got this right?

Had to go to a local Lfs yesterday to get some algae flakes for the catfish (nothing for him to eat bless him) and bought an ammonia liquid test kit for £11.75 I know I need nitrites and nitrates as well but considering I can buy the ful API kit for just over £20 I was not prepared to pay £11.75 per test kit at Lfs. Anyway ammonia at 0 so happy with that. They gave me some bacterial boost stuff that they use (really stunk) which I put in the tank as well after I did the test. Hoping this will move things along with the new filter.

So is the tank likely to go into a mini cycle when I remove the old filter? Bit confused

 

[davec1960]

Rather than take the old filter out and risk a spike I would gradually reduce the amount of media in the old filter. Taking 25% out per week shouldn't cause a problem.

 

[Fishywonder]

Rather than take the old filter out and risk a spike I would gradually reduce the amount of media in the old filter. Taking 25% out per week shouldn't cause a problem.

That makes sense, thanks