All Gone Wrong................................

[laura_smithuk]

Need some help guys,

I originally had a 96 litre tank set up and brought a 125 litre replacement.

I was in the process of cycling the 125 litre tank with 6 platties, today i went to check my 96 litre tank and heater broken and water stone cold.

Due to a severe lack of money i have had to move all fish from 96 litre into 125 litre tank.

I will take the water to get etsted at weekend but in meantime do i just do daily water changes to prevent loosing any fish?

 

[JenCliBee]

Need some help guys,

I originally had a 96 litre tank set up and brought a 125 litre replacement.

I was in the process of cycling the 125 litre tank with 6 platties, today i went to check my 96 litre tank and heater broken and water stone cold.

Due to a severe lack of money i have had to move all fish from 96 litre into 125 litre tank.

I will take the water to get etsted at weekend but in meantime do i just do daily water changes to prevent loosing any fish?

cant you just move the filter or the media over from the 96l into the filter on the 125l? basically creating an instant cycle

BTW.. tank water carried very little if any bacteria so it is really a pointless excersise

Why was you cycling the tank with fish anyways?, wouldnt a bottle of ammonia @ £2 be better and cheaper in the long run

 

[laura_smithuk]

my old fitler was a juwel filter and the new filter is an external filter so as far as im aware not able to tranfer media

and i havent moved any of the water just fish

 

[JenCliBee]

my old fitler was a juwel filter and the new filter is an external filter so as far as im aware not able to tranfer media

and i havent moved any of the water just fish

If you can get to the media in the new juwel filter and then move it to a section of the external it will be fine, you may have to remove some of the media out of one of the sections to replae it with the mature media but thats about as far as it goes, the bacteria that supported the fish in the 96l will support the same amount of fish in the new tank while colonising the new media at the same time.

No but you said you were going to move the water over the weekend, i was just pointing out that water carries very little if any bacteria so its pretty much pointless.

 

[katfish85]

I agree with FishyJake,

If you can add some of your filter media or the whole filter along with gravel, plants etc from your 96l, your 125l should have an instant cycle - that's what happened with mine.
You will still need to do a water change every day - quite a big one - atleast 25% until you are absolutely sure that your water parameters are all stable and ok

if you can, borrow some money to get a water testing kit of your own - you can get them cheaper online and it's so worth it.

one last thing, did you move the fish over to your new tank correctly? - as in, did you allow them to adjust to the new temperature slowly by putting them in a plastic bag with current water and letting the bag sit in the new tank water for 20 min or so and not just chuck them straight in cause that can cause a shock to their systems and they might die

Best of luck

 

[laura_smithuk]

yeah i put them in bags and floated them so they were used to the new water temp.

thanks for your help guys, this wasnt the way i planned to do it at all but had no choice cos of heater breaking

 

[JenCliBee]

yeah i put them in bags and floated them so they were used to the new water temp.

thanks for your help guys, this wasnt the way i planned to do it at all but had no choice cos of heater breaking

moving the mature media over is always the better option over the stress and hassle of doing a fish IN cycle which you were actually doing, move the media over and jobs done, no hassle, no unhealthy conditions for fish and ultimatley all done and dusted

 

[katfish85]

the only other way to do it is to move all the fish along with your external filter from the new tank and the heater that works into your 96litre. Give it a few days to soak up the good bacteria and then move everything back into the new tank again along with the external filter which will contain the good bacteria.

if you don't want to do that, take the filter media from your juwel filter out and let it sit in your new tank for a while because the media is what contains the good bacteria. Just dont rinse it under tap water because the chlorine will kill the bacteria. Filters should only be cleaned in the dirty aquarium water when doing a water change.

hope this helps and hope your fish stay alive

 

[JenCliBee]

the only other way to do it is to move all the fish along with your external filter from the new tank and the heater that works into your 96litre. Give it a few days to soak up the good bacteria and then move everything back into the new tank again along with the external filter which will contain the good bacteria.

if you don't want to do that, take the filter media from your juwel filter out and let it sit in your new tank for a while because the media is what contains the good bacteria. Just dont rinse it under tap water because the chlorine will kill the bacteria. Filters should only be cleaned in the dirty aquarium water when doing a water change.

hope this helps and hope your fish stay alive

If that way was done it would take around 4 weeks to colonise the new filter, not a few days, the easiest option is to move the media over, moving the media and putting it into the tank is just pointless. SDome bacteria will probaby die and the time it would take for you to take it back out would be weeks.

Not hard to actually move the media over, done once and thats it, no messing. No point in causing excess problems by doing unessersry things.

 

[Curiosity101]

As said above, Either...

A) Make some room in your external by removing some of the filter media and replacing it with your fully cycled stuff. You can always cut up the mature sponges from the Juwel if you have to, to make them fit.

or

B) Just move the Juwel filter across. They can be detached from the tank, takes some effort but it's doable.

Whichever method you go for do it ASAP to avoid unnecessary bacteria die off

The only bad advice I can see is to leave them floating around in the tank. The reason bacteria colonises on the filter pads more so that anywhere else is because of the high flow rate it receives. Bacteria need Ammonia and Oxygen to live. If they are left to just float around the tank then they wont receive either of these things in high enough concentrations. Almost definitely leads to a large die back.

 

[laura_smithuk]

right i managed to cut 2 juwel sponges down and put them in new filter.

Have just restarted filter and its now making so much noise. whats going on? why is it not the same as before?

 

[JenCliBee]

right i managed to cut 2 juwel sponges down and put them in new filter.

Have just restarted filter and its now making so much noise. whats going on? why is it not the same as before?

To be able to move all the fish over saftly its best to move all the sponges over not just 2, the noise is probably air in the unit.

 

[Curiosity101]

Agreed, just shake it a little bit to try and get the air out of it.

 

[loraxchick]

right i managed to cut 2 juwel sponges down and put them in new filter.

Have just restarted filter and its now making so much noise. whats going on? why is it not the same as before?

agreed its air in the housing. if it has a primer pump, just prime it vigerously for a few minutes. you will see the airbubbles come out of the outflow and the noise should stop.
cheers

 

[liana_y2kuk]

Stupid question: Could you not of just moved the heater