Moving fish into new bigger tank advise..

5 posts

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


Sahira
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:08 am

Moving fish into new bigger tank advise..

by Sahira

At the moment I have a 35 litre (10 g) freshwater tank, I have placed an order for my new aquarium a Juwel Rio 125 Litre and it should be arriving mid of this coming week (wednesday/thursday hopefully)

When the new tank comes it will be placed in a different place to were my current tank is so i'l have a good couple of weeks to set it up...

When it comes I will set it up with the new gravel (as old gravel is white and red and is gone abit dirty so i dont want to use it) and 3 new plants and 1 new ornament.

Once that is set I plan on running it for 24hrs

Then after the first 24hrs I'l add the Aquasafe leave that for another 24hrs

Then I'l add the Aqua Easy Balance leave that for another 24hrs

Then I plan on putting a few of my old plants/ornaments into the new tank to help the cycle

Then add the Aqua Safe Start (bacteria one) leave that for about 2 days

On the 6/7th day (from set-up) I'l test the water, do a 10% water change (if need be),
then hopefully after (about day 8-9 of setup) that if water parameters etc good as old
tank I'll gradually add my fish (along with all the rest of the old tank plants etc).

I am also planning on once all fish are in new tank putting the old filter pump in the new tank as well as the new one being in the tank.

Any advise or opinions would be good!

Thanks


natalie265
Site Admin
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm

by natalie265

Personally, i think you are making this more complicated than it needs to be. Why don't you just move all of your old filter media and fish to the new tank in one go? Congrats on the new tank!


Ezeanes
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:24 am

by Ezeanes

I agree I just set up my tank 1hr ago for my tank bully and use my water from my other tank a fresh water and put him in . Good luck with new tank and congrats


squarejelly
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:52 pm

by squarejelly

I agree with Natalie, just move everything over all in the same day. There is no need to do all that other stuff and for it to take so long. What I would do though since you don't want to use the same gravel, even though most of the beneficial bacteria should be in the filter there is still some living on the gravel, is fill up the foot of an old pair of stockings with some of the old gravel. Just leave it in the new tank for a week or so after you moved everything over and your new tank shouldn't have any problems with the cycle.

Oh and there is very little beneficial bacteria in the water itself so you can use all new water when setting up the new tank.


Okiimiru
 
Posts: 275
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm

by Okiimiru

I think you should read this article on nitrosomonas and nitrospira bacteria: www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishl ... rticle.htm
Those bacteria grow in population any time an ammonia source is present. You don't need to buy expensive bottles of things. These bacteria are present everywhere, just in numbers that are too low to handle the waste load in a fish tank. But you can feed them and increase their numbers. Just stick something that rots in the tank, it'll rot and give off ammonia, and the bacteria that were already there will have food and they'll reproduce. Literally anything that rots will work. Most people like to use fish flakes and then feed the new empty tank as if they were feeding fish every day. But you happen to already have a large beneficial bacteria population available already living in the media of your old filter. If you stick that on the new tank it'll be instantly cycled. You could either put the entire old filter onto the new tank or lift the media out and stick it in the new filter. By the way, 'cycled' means that the bacteria population is numerous enough to be able to process the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate rapidly enough so that the fish never get exposed to ammonia or nitrite in any significant concentrations. Anyway, long story short, I agree with Natalie265, who suggested to transfer the filter in the previous post. I hope you understand the reasoning behind our advice now.

Also, Squarejelly is right. The bacteria live on surfaces, not floating in the water column, so the suggestion to transfer your old water to the new tank wouldn't help at all. Transferring the old filter media (and keeping it wet at all times during transport) is what you want to do.

And I know no one else has mentioned this yet, but rooted plants don't grow well in 'gravel' because it's pure silicon dioxide. There's no calcium, iron, or magnesium for the plants to use to grow. Pea gravel is also too largely grained to allow for fine root growth. That's why I use kitty litter, which is pure baked ground clay. Here's a substrate analysis that I think you'll find interesting: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... jamie.html
Alternatives to kitty litter involve soil from your yard covered in a few inches of sand and Seachem brand's Fluorite product, both of which are analyzed on that link. I chose kitty litter because it's cheap, $3 for 25 pounds. Look up the price for 25 pounds of Fluorite(R) and you'll see what I mean.

Moving fish into new bigger tank advise..

5 posts

Display posts from previous: Sort by: