Friend Just Gave Me A Tank, But Only Have Some Of The Water

[sven_sol]

Hi all,

just been given a 90ltr Juwel tank with about 8 fish, filter, pump, heater and stand for the price of a pint. Which is nice!

Thing is, I tried to keep as much water as possible, but driving it 30 miles is a little tricky with all that water and only so many containers. I've only managed to keep about 20% of the original water but I've still got the filter media.

I've (nearly) filled it back up with new water as well as about 10ltr of the original water. Had it running for about 45 minutes now with heater and pump on trying to get the temperature up quickly before I transfer the fish to it. I'm planning on bagging them up in the original water then acclimatise them to the new tank before letting them out. Followed by adding the rest of the water in as soon as I can.

I have no idea what the stats are, but the temperature is slowing getting there - its about 20 degrees at the moment, which is probably not far off the temperature in the transfer "bucket".

Has anyone else done anything like this before, and can anyone let me know what to look out for?

Sorry if I'm jabbering - its late and I'm hoping to get this sorted out soon so I can go to bed and be up in about 6 hours time

Cheers,

Sven

 

[blue acara]

an aquarium for the cost of a pint...very nice!

as youre doing get the temperature up in the tank to the same as the bucket.

because you have moved the filter it is possible that some or all of the good bacteria have died.

tomorrow after work or as soon as possible get a test kit for ammonia, nitrite and test the tanks water every day to see if you get a spike. if you do get a spike do water changes.

 

[sven_sol]

1 oclock... still going.

Managed to move across a fair few fish now... temperature not 100% but I'm moving them slowly.

I've already got a pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test kits. So that'll be one thing I wont be needing to buy. Just not though about testing the stats at the moment due to all the new water. I'll be doing that as soon as possible. Was hoping that the bacteria would have survived the hour or so out of the tank.

One of the Red Eye tetras seemed to have a bit of a shock when I move him into the main water, even after keeping him/her in a bag for 15/20 minutes to equalize out the temperature. Seems to be ok now though.

Have a kulli loach to catch soon.. thats gonna be fun!

Could have save a lot of time and put them into my main tank, but I'm not sure my BGK would have handled the loach and the other smaller fish. Besides, he hadn't told me if there had been any diseases or anything with the fish, so wouldn't want to introduce them after I quarantined them.

I'm just happy that they're all still alive (for the moment at least)!! Off to add water into the bags now.

 

[trace1]

did you manage to keep the filter media wet ?? if so some of the bacteria may have survived.
other than what your doing now theres not a lot else you can do other than watch the fish & test the water & like said above water changes if ness
good luck with it

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah if the filter media was kept wet it'll be fine for 12 hrs or so, if not then you'd proabbly have some die off after an hr or so

 

[andywg]

Providing the pH is similar, and the tempereature was not too far out then the old water will be nothing but waste.

The concept of "Old Water" being good for a tank is one that science has pretty much destroyed.

 

[sven_sol]

Managed to go to bed about 2.15... seems worth while... all are still alive at least!!

Oh. The media wasn't soaking in water, it was taken out and put into a water proof bag. The was still some water in it (about an inch in the bottom) and was more than damp when I put it back in.

Ah well.. best keep a close eye anyway. They're all small fish, so shouldn't have a big crash if anything were to happen like that.

wish me luck!!

Providing the pH is similar, and the tempereature was not too far out then the old water will be nothing but waste.

The concept of "Old Water" being good for a tank is one that science has pretty much destroyed.

oh.. okay didn'y know that! So its all media then.

thank for the info!

 

[Fat Boy]

Tank a nice big handfull of your substrate from your tank and put in an old stocking, tie in a knot and place in your new tank, this will help clone your new tank and help speed up the cycling process.