Cycling Vs. Transferring Filters Over

[VickiandKev]

I'm hoping to upgrade to a 6ft tank before Xmas, and I currently have a 4ft tank running on three filters, two internal and one external.

Ideally I would like to be able to transfer everything over from my smaller tank to the bigger one almost immediately as I don't really have the space for a massive 6ft tank AND a 4ft tank in my living room!

When I upgraded from a 125L to my current 300L tank, I simply moved over my running filter, as much of the water as possible, and put some mature media in each of the new filters. I also moved over all of the bogwood and plants I had in my previous tank. I found this worked very well and now all of the filters on my tank are mature.

I'll be upgrading by the same ratio again, from 300L to approx 1000L, and am wondering if it would be possible to run my 3 mature filters alongside the 3 new filters I will need and transfer all the decor over and as much water as possible as well as distributing a bit of mature media between the new filters?

This new tank will be drastically understocked (and I'm not planning on fully stocking it any time soon) so that should surely help with the biological filtration situation. I would run the mature filters alongside the new for at least 4 weeks (possibly 6?), so would this work?

Any help or advice appreciated.

 

[fatheadminnow]

....as well as distributing a bit of mature media between the new filters?

This is exactly what I was going to tell you to do, but then you said it!

Your thought of moving everything over with the same amount of fish will work just fine. And adding more filters will help with the turnover rate of your tank.

Everything should be just fine, swap everything over and you should not experience any problems.

-FHM

 

[VickiandKev]

Thank you for such a quick reply

That solves a huge problem

 

[grumpysteve]

as you're understocking the tank you'll be fine, but this makes an interesting read regarding bacterial colonies.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/biofilm/devbio.shtml

just out of curiosity, why are you running so many filters rather than 1 with a higher turnover?

 

[Haych]

i dont think you would need to filter for 4-6 weeks as MOST of the maturing would already have been done with the "old" filters

but thats what i did with my tanks, just moved everything over, except water

 

[drobbyb]

There are many reasons to run more than 1 filter. Different filters can perform diffrent jobs or serve as backups (my favorite.)

There's nothing wrong with having multiple filters. I run 3 on my 72 gallon at all times and a fourth if I am anticipating some fry in the near future (one to move so that the fry tank is instantly cycled.)

 

[VickiandKev]

I'm running 3 filters just because of the way things turned out. I intended to run 1 internal and 1 external, mainly for water circulation, but ended up with 2 internals as one was switched over from my previous tank and I had to buy a much bigger internal to last the tank until my external arrived and then never took any of the filters off the tank.

It's a good idea from the POV of having plenty of backups though, and it's also good for making sure the water is always moving in my tank, as my population of fish like that

 

[grumpysteve]

sorry, i wasn't trying to imply there was anything wrong with having that many filters. i just think tanks look better aesthetically with less equipment.