Can I Massively Overstock?

[greenscooby]

Afternoon all, just bought a 2foot by 1 foot tank as a second tank, bought sand for BOTH tanks, will it be ok to put all my fish into the smaller tank while i empty my larger tank and change the substrate, i know it's gonna be REALLY cramped but i'm hoping it won't take too long to get the larger tank set up.

My larger tank is a 110l 24ukg with approx 26 fish in. This has been running since the end of January and currently has gravel as a substrate, which is gonna be changed to sand.

Sorry that sounds confusing but hope you can see where i'm coming from.

Any advice appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Mark.

 

[Bobtastic]

I don't see it being a problem for a shore period of time, like a couple of hours. I've seen ppl keep their fish in plastic trofs or buckets as a temporary container whilest they do a substrate change.

 

[greenscooby]

I'm hoping it's only going to be for an hour maximum, i'm going to get sand ready and everything i need to clean the larger tank out, so as soon as the water is out all i've got to do is remove the gravel, clean tank add sand and refill with water.

Should i keep a couple of buckets of the old tank water to put back in or just 100% new treated water around the same tempreature?

Mark.

 

[Bobtastic]

I don't think that there is any point in keeping any of the water from the tank (unless you're keeping the fishies in it) as there is no bacterial benefit to keeping the old water.

Don't forget to let the water that you refill the tank with get up to temp b4 u readd the fishies.

 

[greenscooby]

Yeah i'm already used to having several pans of water boiling away on the cooker, so the water will definatly be the correct tempreature give or take a couple of degrees, i'm lucky that all the fish i have are happy within the same tempreature range.

Mark.

 

[mystus]

Make sure you keep your filter wet maybe even put the filter if its a HOB into the smaller tank till your done.

 

[sheag35]

I don't think that there is any point in keeping any of the water from the tank (unless you're keeping the fishies in it) as there is no bacterial benefit to keeping the old water.

sorry I have to disagree with this statement for 2 reasons,
a) aged water is what the fish have been used to therefore a complete 100% water change can cause fish to die due to nitrite / nitrate / ammonia / and ph shock, I believe a better solution is to keep at least 50% if not 75% of the aged water re add it to the new tank and top with treated fresh water this will cause less of an impact on their existing conditions
b) it actually has some bacterial benefits as aged water will have beneficial bacteria in it which would greatly decreae the new cycling aspect of re setting up this tank again

also i would recommend running the filter from the tank your stripping out in the tank where you'll be temporarily adding the fish as it will decrease the bioload on the filter in that tank and also allow you to keep the bacteria in that filter alive whilst you strip, clean and resetup your tank, only put the filter back on after your tank water has reached over 23 degrees Celcius / 73 degrees Farenheit as below this temp your beneficial bacteria in the filter will start dying

hope this helps you out a bit
Seamus

 

[OldMan47]

You can use either new water or the water that you have saved from the tank. The fish will only care that you use old water if you have not been doing regular water changes. If you just let the water in the tank gradually age with no water changes, it will be quite high in mineral content and the fish will not do well if you change the mineral content quickly. Otherwise a large fraction of new water will be fine. I would go ahead and keep the water the fish have been in while you made the switch and then top up the tank with new treated water.