Tank Change

[Fatpants]

Hi All.

I started a Tropical tank for the first time about twelve months ago. After a very steep learning curve everything has settled down nicely. I am running a 60ltr tank with a tetratec 600 external filter. The fish are 4 Harlequin raboas and one ancistrus (the best). The problem is I have just purchased a second hand Rio 180ltr tank of a friend and I am not sure as to the best way to make the swap. I am stuck between setting up the new one with its own filter and then doing a fishless cycle before transferring my fish and tetratec filter as well OR Transfering everything straight away and toping up the water slowly over a couple of weeks. I am guessing that some of you have encountered this issue before so I would really appreciate any advice you can give.

Thanks Stu.

 

[OldMan47]

You need to find a good spot for the new tank, cycle it and then you will have two.
If you are willing to get rid of the first tank, you can just move everything into the new tank at once and top off with fresh dechlorinated water. It will have the same effect as if you had done a large water change. Once everyone has settled into the new tank, get the new filter running beside your 600 so that it also becomes cycled and you could then add more fish to the new larger tank. If you followed my first set of preferences, you would also have a quarantine tank for the new fish to go through.

 

[Fatpants]

Hi Old man !

Thanks for the speedy response. My intention is to just run the Rio in my living room. I will probably keep the other tank for emergancies though (empty in the garage). My house is not big enough to run both tanks really. The good news is the new tank is going to be in a different position to the old one (a much better corner out of the way) so the change over shouldnt be to difficult of stressfull for me or my fishies lol.

Cheers Stu

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with OM47. The thing of significance is that your current filter will have a bacterial population that balances with the fish stocking you have. So if the filter and the fish move together and no new fish are added yet, it won't matter that you've added fresh dechlored temp-matched water in greater volume.

~~waterdrop~~