Switching To Another Tank

[Matt Gleadow]

I have just got hold of another tank. Its twice the size of my current one.

I've swapped my old one plus a bit of cash for it. It comes with an external filter compared to my current Juwel's internal set up.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be wanting to transfer my fish into the new tank so I can get rid of my old tank. There are only 2 fish at the moment.

The new tank is going to have ocean rock in it instead of the limestone I have in my old tank so I wont be carrying the limestone across to the new tank.

Whats the best way of going about swapping things over? The external filter on the new tank isn't established and the filter in my current one is glued in and isn't big enough to filter the new tank.

I'm going to be using the same substrate so figured I could put the stuff out of the old tank in and that would hopefully help a bit?

Do I transfer the water from the old tank into the new tank?

I dont want to end up cycling from scratch!

Did a search but for some reason the search didn't find anything. Maybe not using it right so apologies if this is a common question.

 

[Glod]

Adding the substrate from the old tank will help a bit, basically it should jumpstart the cycle. The best thing you could do would be take the filter media from your jewel filter and put it in your external along with the existing media, keeping it moist with tank water all the way through. Adding the water from your old tank and topping up with dechlorinated water should allow you to transfer the fish straight over.

You might get a mini cycle since it's possible you will lose a small amount of bacteria during the transfer but it shouldn't last long. After a few weeks you can take the juwel filter materials out, there should be enough to sustain the tank in the external.