Upgrading To Larger Tank, Without Cycling?

[Jackiee]

I'm upgrading from my 29 gallon tank to a new 75 gallon tank,
and was wondering If I just take all of the water, decorations, gravel, filters, from my old tank, and use them in my new 75 gallon tank,

would my tank go through any type of cycle?

since It would be all the same things, with all the same biological bacteria?
And my fish wouldn't need to acclimate to the new water or tank because it's the same water and objects that they've always been with?

I mean, of course I would top off the tank with either dechorinated tank water, or gallons of spring water,
and I would run other new filters along with the old filters, so that my water would be being filtered enough,
since my 29 gallon filters arent near as big enough to support a 75 gallon tank.

Or, my uncle has a very well established 125 gallon aquarium, and offered to fill multiple 5 gallon buckets of his tank water and transport
them to me to start my tank with instead, since he never has problems with his water. My fish would have to be bagged and acclimated to his water then,
but it doesn't bother me to go through the trouble to do it. Is that a good idea?


Advice?

 

[Geoff-]

Your first idea was the right one - transfer everything into the new home (most importantly fish, original water, and filter material). Most of the bacteria are in the filter and you will avoid a cycle if you start the new tank this way and then fill the rest with dechlorinated water. Effectively, dechlorinated water is inert as long as the pH and temperature roughly match your current tank it doesn't actually 'do' anything to the nitrogen cycle.

You will need to allow some time for bacteria to populate the new media before adding more fish.

 

[fishlove75]

Agreed, go with your first thought. However, if you are planning to add additional fish do it slowly because your current filter only has enough bacteria to handle your current fish load. If you add too many too quickly you could end up in a mini-cycle situation. I know you mentioned you were going to add an additional filter to handle the increase size in the tank, but the concept is the same. You can have a 150 gallon filter on a 75 gallon tank but if you only have 10 fish in that 75 gallon tank that is all the filter can handle. If you add 10 more fish, you will be in a cycle situation.

Make sense?

Just give the new filter some time to clone and add any new fish slowly, and watch you water stats as you add fish, treat like a fish in cycle untill the bacteria catch up to the new bioload.

Good Luck and congrats on the new tank.

 

[markandhisfish]

i really dont see everybodys obsession with using the water from the other tank. its pointless , youre not gaining anything by using it . there is a small amount of bacteria on all hard surfaces in the tank such as gravel , glass,decor etc . but even that is minimal. all you need to do is transfer over all of the filter media . you can even use new gravel if you wanted , then get the tank up to temperature and add your existing fish . this will not cause a cycle as your bacteria colony is already developed to match your stock levels. then all you need to do is add any new fish gradually and slowly . 2 or 3 fish here and there and you should have no problems at all , just keep an eye on your stats.

every time i change my setup , which over the last 3 years or so has been pretty much every 6 months the tank is completely drained down , and refilled with new water . using water from the existing tank justisnt necessary at all .

think about it this way . if keeping old water was so important then we wouldnt be able to do 70 or 80% waterchanges would we?

 

[fluttermoth]

i really dont see everybodys obsession with using the water from the other tank. its pointless , youre not gaining anything by using it . there is a small amount of bacteria on all hard surfaces in the tank such as gravel , glass,decor etc . but even that is minimal. all you need to do is transfer over all of the filter media . you can even use new gravel if you wanted , then get the tank up to temperature and add your existing fish . this will not cause a cycle as your bacteria colony is already developed to match your stock levels. then all you need to do is add any new fish gradually and slowly . 2 or 3 fish here and there and you should have no problems at all , just keep an eye on your stats.

every time i change my setup , which over the last 3 years or so has been pretty much every 6 months the tank is completely drained down , and refilled with new water . using water from the existing tank justisnt necessary at all .

think about it this way . if keeping old water was so important then we wouldnt be able to do 70 or 80% waterchanges would we?

Agreed. I've just moved my oscar and his companions into a new, larger tank with a new filter and used 100% new water. I moved the fish and their filter media and have had no problems (apart from the oscar sulking and refusing to eat, but, you know, that's oscars for you )

 

[karin]

My limited experience is that shifting the filter (gravel if you can) and anything else (optional) is the way to go but expect a mini-cycle, small spikes of ammonia and nitrite. (If one doesn't happen, lucky for you). Having done this sort of thing twice, I would plan on testing every 12 hours for at least a week to make certain that these mini-spikes don't do damage. I always seem to have a bit of a nitrite mini-cycle. When this occurs I do water changes based on the testing. Usually in a week, the nitrite processing bacteria catches up for me.

 

[Gilli]

In my experience you may find a small blip in your water stats for a while. My external filter broke down so I had to rush out and buy a new one. I took all of the old media- ceramics, sponges the lot and put them in the new filter within a few hours but I still had to wait a while for the bacteria to catch up. I think this was because some of the bacteria lives on the filter surfaces inside and of course in the pipes. If you do get a blip it wont be much - just keep testing your water and keep the food content down till things catch up!

 

[Jackiee]

Thank you everybody.

New water it is, I will go buy some Prime water conditioner...

or perhaps Wardley's 3 in 1 water conditioner, is says it buffers pH to 7.5 (which is extremely close to what my tank has now),
neutralizes ammonia and eliminates chlorine and chloramines.

But then again, Prime says it removes chlorine, chloramine, and detoxifies ammonia and nitrite,
and also provides ions and stimulates natural slime coat. and that it will also detoxify any
heavy metals found in the tap water.

Any opinions of which is better?

And, I actually was wanting to change my gravel. i HATE the gravel I have now.

It was more of a natural colored patio rock type gravel, with medium to large pebbles.
I don't find it attractive anymore and It's hard to vaccuum, as some of the pebbles are so big they're big enough to get lodged in my siphon
when i'm sucking junk out of the bottom of the gravel.

It also lets more pieces of food/waste go farther to the bottom of the tank.

The next gravel I get, I would like it to be very fine small gravel. Fine enough for my fish to dig and sift around, but not so much so where i'll suck it up in the
siphon during a water change.

I wanted either some black rock to make my fish's colors pop (but then my Pleco would be harder to notice),
or some nice red clay colored gravel.

And yes, I'm pretty sure that it takes about 4 weeks at least until your new filters colonize enough bacteria in them,
I wouldn't add new fish until this period was over.

 

[Jackiee]

I'm going to look at a couple 75 gallon aquariums this weekend, but i've been getting offers on extremely nice 55 gallon set ups.. they're so tempting, and most of
them are newer set ups also, and nicer looking, since the 55 gallon is a more popular size. The only difference between 55 and 75 is width.

Does width matter a whole lot to the fish?

 

[Geoff-]

i really dont see everybodys obsession with using the water from the other tank. its pointless , youre not gaining anything by using it .

you are bringing the water over as a buffer for your water chemistry, so instead of a 100% change you are doing a 75% change. it means pH swings and hardness swings aren't as big, eg my tank stabilizes at pH 6.5 and my tap water is pH 8. That said, unless you have particularly sensitive fish it shouldn't matter. I routinely did 50% changes or more when I had a 20L tank (heck, 10L is one bucket it's silly to try and do any less) and my fish were fine with it.

 

[markandhisfish]

ive used completely new water when changing setups every time with zero issues. and ive done it with some of the most delicate of fish , including discus , rams , gold nugget plec, rummynose tetras. if youre worried about any ph swing all you need to do is float/acclimatise as you would with new fish from a shop . and if you transfered say 25% old water and used 75% new water your still going to get this swing and that small amount of old water really isnt gaining you anything in this respect .

seachem prime would be a better choice than the wardleys . adding chemicals to buffer ph is not the way forward , its too difficult to acheive long term stability. your fish are accustomed to your ph anyway so you dont need to be buffering with anything.

just to go back to the ph swing mentioned above , the odd swing here and there is not going to cause an issue . its instability over a period of time that will do the damage .

if the ph is slightly different for the initial swap its not the end of the world , within 24 hours the tank should of settled again and it will be back to busines as usual with the waterchanges , stats etc. this 1 little blip is not going to do any harm at all.

 

[Jackiee]

Alright thank you everyone, ever since I've joined this site, it's been a life saver for any questions i've had.

 

[Tolak]

It helps to fast the fish for 24 hours before the move, and feed lightly for the next week. Less food means less waste produced, allowing your filter to catch up a bit easier if needed.

 

[Jackiee]

Alright, will do.