How To Transfer To A New Tank

[ZoeR]

Hi All

This is my first post here and I would like some advice please.

We bought our tank in about Jan 07 and the light fitting no longer works. It is a stupid design where the light is integrated into the hood and also runs off the same motor as the pump. As the company no longer makes our tank they cant offer us a new hood and light. The shop has offered us a new tank to the same value. My question is how to I transfer my fish to the new tank? Obviously I need to treat the water extra but is there any other tips/hints.

Thanks
ZoeR

 

[xxBarneyxx]

What kind of filter do you have on your current tank? Also will you have both tanks set up up at the same time for the transfer or will you need to take your current tank down, return it, bring new one back and then set it all up?

If you have a filter that can be removed from the current tank then my suggestion would be to drain half the water from your current tank into the new tank and then top it off with fresh water (so in effect you are just doing a 50% water change). Transfer all your fish over to the new tank and also the filter and it will in effect be exactly the same as the last tank (most of the biological filtration is done within the filter so as long as this is not allowed to go dry or spend any length of time without watre flowing through it you will be fine.

If you have to take the old tank down before putting the new one up then you need to do much the same thing.

Get a large container (big enough to hold all your fish doesnt have to be as big as the tank) fill this with water from the tank and and transfer your fish and filter to it.
Take down the old tank and put the rest of the water that was left into another container.
Set up the new tank and fill with the second container of water, then transfer the fish and filter and the rest of the water.

If you have an internal filter (one that cant be removed from your current tank) then you start running into problems. The solution depends on what kind of filter you have but in short you will need to transfer as much of the "media" (floss, pads, bio-balls, etc) to the new filter as possible as this is what keeps your water good and you need to keep as much of the good bacteria alive as possible.

 

[SJ2K]

Id just bung the old media into the new filter keep an eye on the stats for a few days and bingo.

 

[ZoeR]

Thats great, thanks for that.

My filter is one that cant be removed from the tank its built into the hood.

I will be able to stick some old media in the new tank.

All of this just because the light fitting has broken

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah thats the only problem with all in one kit. If one thing goes wrong it is often a pain to fix it without having to replace the whole lot.

Forgot to say before Welcome to the forum!

Hope the transfer goes ok.

 

[vinylman]

As SJ2K says, just put all the existing filter media in the new filter and hold off feeding them for a few days. Just increase the feeding back to the usual level over a week or so and you should be sorted. They won't starve, it'll probably do them good.