Tank Upgrade - Need Help With Sorting The Filter

[Wills]

Hi there I am upgrading my tank just sold mine and found a good one with a nice filter - its a Fluval FX5.

However its been used as a marine tank so I know I need a good scrub in the tank for FW fish but the filter. I am going to give it a good cleaning and get all the salt residue out and replace all the media with new stuff. Now to avoid a fishless cycle can I swap over all my filter media to the new filter?

At present its run on Fluval U internal filters but if I just swap over all the pads and all the bio balls into the FX5 will it be quite a smooth move over? Obviously I will be testing daily but do you think I will have any issues?

I dont plan on adding any fish for a while just to let things settle down.

Let me know thanks
Wills

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Wills,

Yes moving over all your existing media should make for a smooth move. If you find yourself with any reasonable choice in the matter then I'd give weight to putting the mature media just prior in the water flow path before the new media that will have to fill out the bulk. For example, if the FX5 had a huge tray I was planning to fill with ceramic gravel and I had a smaller amount of ceramic gravel I was bringing over from the old filter(s) and the water was coming UP through the tray, I would dump the mature media in the tray first and dump the new media to fill out the try ON TOP of it. Same with sponges, etc. if I could work it out. Its a detail, and not nearly so important as simply -using- the mature media to begin with but I'd think it would optimize the situation some.

Also, its good to hear you plan to test and there's still some unpredictableness, from what I've read, as to the reliablility of colonies being moved from one filter to another. Overall I think it works pretty well the majority of the time but every so often the colonies seem to somehow not "take" in the new situation. And, obviously, you'll need to feed the bacteria with ammonia if you're going to run without fish for more than a day.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Wills]

Thanks waterdrop I was fairly sure it should work. Ill try what you said about as well should be okay though. The fish should be getting moved over in the same day. Planning to put fish and filter in a bucket then move them to new tank once its set up etc.

Thanks again
Wills

 

[waterdrop]

Good luck Wills, hope it goes well - waterdrop