Changing Tanks

[rob1284]

hi i currently have a 60 ltr tropical fish tank. Im going to be upgrading to a 125 ltr tank. Am i ok in using what water i have left in the old tank which is just under 50% and filling the rest up with treated dechlorinated water. Bare in mind the new tank will have a canister where my old tank has a hexagonal gravel filter. All i got is a sponge driven filter by the air pump i can transfer over. In the canister as its all dried out i was going to replace with new media. Im hoping other than daily water changes for a bit this should be it? Sorry im not a hardcore fish keeper so i dont really know much on the tank switching. Be gentle with me

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

This is how i did it,

If its going in a different place, set up the new tank, fill with substrate and everything else from the other tank, transfer half the water from the old tank to the new tank, if there is enough water in the new tank for the fish to swim upright, then transfer the fish, if not fill up wih dechlorinated water so there is enoupgh for them to do that. Then drain the rest of the water into the new tank, then top up with fresh dechlorinated water.

Now with the canister filter, I presume external? then get a good handful of gravel from around the filter base of the UGF and put that into a tight foot (might not have to do that) then put that into a media tray in your external. You will probably get a mini cycle but shouldnt be too bad.

Hope that helps, if your putting the new tank where the current one is now, let me know and I will talk you through that aswell

Oh and welcome to TFF!!

 

[rob1284]

This is how i did it,

If its going in a different place, set up the new tank, fill with substrate and everything else from the other tank, transfer half the water from the old tank to the new tank, if there is enough water in the new tank for the fish to swim upright, then transfer the fish, if not fill up wih dechlorinated water so there is enoupgh for them to do that. Then drain the rest of the water into the new tank, then top up with fresh dechlorinated water.

Now with the canister filter, I presume external? then get a good handful of gravel from around the filter base of the UGF and put that into a tight foot (might not have to do that) then put that into a media tray in your external. You will probably get a mini cycle but shouldnt be too bad.

Hope that helps, if your putting the new tank where the current one is now, let me know and I will talk you through that aswell

Oh and welcome to TFF!!

Thank you very much for your advice, and thank you for the welcome and advice so far!!
Im new to forums and seeing some html code (i think thats it) as well as text is confusing me lol
Anyway yes it is an external, its a fluval 205. My place is also small so its going in place of the one i have got.
Do you mean put some of the old gravel in one of the bottom trays in the canister for a month or two for good bacteria reasons?

This is how i did it,

If its going in a different place, set up the new tank, fill with substrate and everything else from the other tank, transfer half the water from the old tank to the new tank, if there is enough water in the new tank for the fish to swim upright, then transfer the fish, if not fill up wih dechlorinated water so there is enoupgh for them to do that. Then drain the rest of the water into the new tank, then top up with fresh dechlorinated water.

Now with the canister filter, I presume external? then get a good handful of gravel from around the filter base of the UGF and put that into a tight foot (might not have to do that) then put that into a media tray in your external. You will probably get a mini cycle but shouldnt be too bad.

Hope that helps, if your putting the new tank where the current one is now, let me know and I will talk you through that aswell

Oh and welcome to TFF!!

Thank you very much for your advice, and thank you for the welcome and advice so far!!
Im new to forums and seeing some html code (i think thats it) as well as text is confusing me lol
Anyway yes it is an external, its a fluval 205. My place is also small so its going in place of the one i have got.
Do you mean put some of the old gravel in one of the bottom trays in the canister for a month or two for good bacteria reasons?

oh and do you mean substrate as in gravel? sorry if its a dumb question but i had to get my head around calling the sponges in the filters media!
Do you think also i should soak my new media bio max etc in my old tank water in the canister too?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

ok, little more challenging, and have to do it a little quicker if your putting it in the same place.

Ok if you can store as much water as you can, if you can't dont worry, put your fish into a bucket, with the heater and air pump filter in it.

Then drain the rest of the water out, put a good handful of gravel from around the under gravel filter, in to the bucket aswell to stop it going dry, as this will hold lots of good bacteria. Then remove the gravel from the old tank then move the tank, and put in the new tank. Fill with gravel and whatever ornements you have, fill with what ever water you mangaged to store and top up with fresh temp matched dechlorinated water. Turn the heater on, set up the filter, fill with all the filter media (and gravel from the bucket) and move your fish across. If you have small fish and sandwich bags you can acclimitise using that, if you havn't got any or fish are too big don't worry too much. I hope that makes sense, if not, just ask about whatever i havn't explained well enough.

Yes put the gravel in the bottom tray for bacteria reasons, soaking the bio max will do nothing really.

I have a fluval 205 aswell, good filters IMO, although only had it a few weeks.

 

[rob1284]

ok, little more challenging, and have to do it a little quicker if your putting it in the same place.

Ok if you can store as much water as you can, if you can't dont worry, put your fish into a bucket, with the heater and air pump filter in it.

Then drain the rest of the water out, put a good handful of gravel from around the under gravel filter, in to the bucket aswell to stop it going dry, as this will hold lots of good bacteria. Then remove the gravel from the old tank then move the tank, and put in the new tank. Fill with gravel and whatever ornements you have, fill with what ever water you mangaged to store and top up with fresh temp matched dechlorinated water. Turn the heater on, set up the filter, fill with all the filter media (and gravel from the bucket) and move your fish across. If you have small fish and sandwich bags you can acclimitise using that, if you havn't got any or fish are too big don't worry too much. I hope that makes sense, if not, just ask about whatever i havn't explained well enough.

Yes put the gravel in the bottom tray for bacteria reasons, soaking the bio max will do nothing really.

I have a fluval 205 aswell, good filters IMO, although only had it a few weeks.

thanks i will try all this next week hopefully thats if i manage to get this tank. I didnt want to be a noob you see, i have a overstocked tank as i keep getting them off my sister at my mums. I literally spent nothing on fish as i get free ones all the time. Im currently stocking 5 danios, 5 platy and 3 black widow tetras. Yep i should have more numbers as they are all shoaling fish but im on 60 litres here with a sponge filter driven by air and a undergravel. arghhh!!!!

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

the under gravel filter should be ok, depending on how much LPH it pumps.

If I can make a suggestion, I know getting free fish is great, however only if they are what you really want, I rehomed fish from my friend, but I realised about 3 weeks later, they are too big for the tank and not really what I want to go for in my stocking, so had to rehome a couple. But if its the fish you want then thats great

Don't worry about sounding like a newbie, we were all new at this hobby at one stage, and I still am a newbie, learning things all the time, and I'm sure most if not all the experienced hobbyists on here will agree they are constantly learing too.

This is a great rescource for information, if I ever have a querie on something, this is the first place I come to.

Good luck with the tanks, btw we love seeing pics

 

[rob1284]

the under gravel filter should be ok, depending on how much LPH it pumps.

If I can make a suggestion, I know getting free fish is great, however only if they are what you really want, I rehomed fish from my friend, but I realised about 3 weeks later, they are too big for the tank and not really what I want to go for in my stocking, so had to rehome a couple. But if its the fish you want then thats great

Don't worry about sounding like a newbie, we were all new at this hobby at one stage, and I still am a newbie, learning things all the time, and I'm sure most if not all the experienced hobbyists on here will agree they are constantly learing too.

This is a great rescource for information, if I ever have a querie on something, this is the first place I come to.

Good luck with the tanks, btw we love seeing pics
[/quote

I have this picture of my tank, its nothing special at the moment, this is why im going for this bigger tank to start shaping my hobby a bit better lol
#92### only a 100kb, hello this is 2011 lol

 

[rob1284]

the under gravel filter should be ok, depending on how much LPH it pumps.

If I can make a suggestion, I know getting free fish is great, however only if they are what you really want, I rehomed fish from my friend, but I realised about 3 weeks later, they are too big for the tank and not really what I want to go for in my stocking, so had to rehome a couple. But if its the fish you want then thats great

Don't worry about sounding like a newbie, we were all new at this hobby at one stage, and I still am a newbie, learning things all the time, and I'm sure most if not all the experienced hobbyists on here will agree they are constantly learing too.

This is a great rescource for information, if I ever have a querie on something, this is the first place I come to.

Good luck with the tanks, btw we love seeing pics
[/quote

I have this picture of my tank, its nothing special at the moment, this is why im going for this bigger tank to start shaping my hobby a bit better lol
#92### only a 100kb, hello this is 2011 lol


i will try and take a 100 kb shot of the tank

 

[rob1284]

nope i cant get it down to 100 kb what do i do?

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Most of us use photo bucket, upload the pics their then post the URL of the pic to hear. Once you have uploaded the pics, if you hover over the pic, it will drop down with 4 links, click on direct link which will copy it, then hit the picture frame thing on bar above where you post, paste the URL there and bingo!!!!

Hope that makes sense lol

 

[rob1284]

Most of us use photo bucket, upload the pics their then post the URL of the pic to hear. Once you have uploaded the pics, if you hover over the pic, it will drop down with 4 links, click on direct link which will copy it, then hit the picture frame thing on bar above where you post, paste the URL there and bingo!!!!

Hope that makes sense lol

right, i have got a dropbox account so iwill post the url as i got my new tank in place now. Im waiting for my external still so i did a diy job and packed my gravel into a two litre bottle. stuck in a uplift tube jobby took 5 mins to make. Its now pump at a good rate from the eheim 400 air pump. Im still waiting on my canister which is not cool, my tank is running off a sponge filter and a diy filter with my old gravel for the bio. Which will go in the canister for a bit when it gets here

i ordered a fluval e series heater and a eheim powerhead too. Im stopping spending the money now its getting silly lol
So far i got in this picture
Air driven sponge filter
DIY bottle gravel filter
Juwel powerhead resting in a sponge filter for circulation
BOYU 100 watt heater
http/dl.dropbox.com/u/16660601/IMAG0447.jpg