Moving To A Larger Tank

[ShaniB]

Hello!
I have a 5 gallon tank that has been completely cycled and is running fine, but I have decided to move up to a 30 gallon tank. Do I need to completely re-cycle the bigger tank, or can I move the filter, gravel, plants, rocks, water, and driftwood from my old tank to the new one (basically everything in my 5 gallon)? I also have the filter which is too small for the larger tank, but I was planning to suspend the smaller tank's filter in the larger tank's empty filter space. How long will it take for the larger tank's filter to acquire the necessary bacteria, and will this even work? Also, will it be safe to immediately put the fish in the new tank? Basically, will it be instantly cycled or do I need to go through the process again? Right now I just have a couple of bumblebee gobys and 3 fancy guppies, but I was wanting the larger tank so I could expand a bit more!
Thank you!
Shani

 

[fish_tank0311]

Well 5 gallons of cycled water doesnt make up for a 30 gallon tank. You might be ok to move them straight in, as i have had angel fish and gouramis in plain old uncycled water (i know its bad dont rage at me) and they were fine. your fish are generally a hardy fish, so it might be possible if you do it all at once not over 3 days. Im not sure what you mean with the filter though. Oh and dont forget to add some stress coat to the water to make the move easier.

 

[waterdrop]

Water does not cycle, filters cycle. A "cycled" filter is one where the biomedia of the filter contains two specific species of bacteria in sufficient numbers to handle the current bioload (the fish) in the tank. Immediately after proper fishless cycling, the bacterial colonies will be able to handle a full (one inch rough guideline) stocking for a given tank size. But once the actual first stocking is introduced, the colonies will "drop back down" to match the given actual fish load.

Thus, the complete stocking of fish and the filter may be moved together to a new larger tank containing conditioned, temperature-matched water and the fish and filter will still be in balance. There is a small risk the filter may mini-cycle simply because of the move and slightly different tank circulation, so the usual ammonia, nitrite, pH and nitrate testing should be stepped up for a period after the move.

New fish should not be added for at least a couple of weeks. After that, the usual small increases of 2 to 3 (number may be adjusted for size) fish per month or so may be introduced within the stocking limits of the tank volume. A mature filter will only acquire bacteria in response to an addition of fish beyond what it has already adjusted to.

~~waterdrop~~