Changing Tanks?

[Xcric]

so i was sitting around the other day and i started to wonder, lets say i have a 55 gallon, fully cycled tank and it springs a leak that i can't fix

and i have an empty spare 55 gallon tank

if i take the filter from the leaking 55 gallon, along with the sand and the decorations, and put them all in the empty 55 gallon tank, would the tank suffer from new tank syndrome or would it work out fine with no harm to the fish other than stress?

 

[Rodders]

Take the water as well.

 

[FishFreaks]

If you take all the decor, substrate, and the filter you shouldnt have nts, but you may have a mini cycle at the worst

 

[andywg]

If you have the filter then you have the vast majority of the bacteria. The ornaments and substrate will mean the most you will suffer is a mild spike.

Depending on the difference between your tap water and tank water, it shouldn't be necessary to take any water as almost no beneficial bacteria is stored in it. Just make sure the levels (temp, pH, GH, KH) are the same.

 

[Xcric]

neat, thats what i was thinking, but you know always better to see what other people say in case i'm wrong

i'll have to remember this if something like that ever does happen to one of my tanks

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Xcric

I did something similar when I moved last August. It worked out well.

Since I wanted to combine some smaller tanks, and had a 55 gallon tank to move too, I bought 2 new 55 gallon tanks and had them delivered to my new apartment. I then moved the contents of the original 55 gallon tank to the first one. I used very little of the old water since it would have been hard to transport from one town to another. All that went into the tank was the water I moved the fish in; the rest was new.

The second 55 gallon I used the filter media from several of my smaller tanks, and put the fish from them in it. These two tanks were set up in advance of my furniture and other belongings being moved, so I took my time with them and all went without a hitch. They went through no mini-cycles.

When I moved the old 55 gallon tank, however, it was moved by the furniture movers, and I had to set it up later. The fish and filter media from several small tanks was moved, but there was a delay of a couple of days while I tried to unpack necessary items in my new home. When I did set it up, some of the beneficial bacteria had been lost and it went through a cycle.

My conclusion is that it's not the water that's important in the success of a tank switch, it's the speed with which it's accomplished. I interrupted the feeding and normal aeration of the beneficial bacteria, and this is what caused the cycle to happen in that tank.

 

[Tolak]

I just did something similar over the weekend, upgraded 3 20 gallons to 29's. Bare bottom tanks, so no substrate. Fish went in 1 bucket with a heater & sponge filter, filter media went in another. No problems at all.

Tolak