Upgrading From 15gal To 55 Gallon Tank

[Araxen]

I recently just setup my 55 gallon tank and I need to transfer my fish and stuff to the new tank. I'm going to put the filter from my 15 gallon tank in the 55 gallon tank along with the Aquaclear 70 I bought. I just setup my 55 gallon a day ago and have had the Aquaclear running to clear up the tank.

Can I just put the old filter and the fish into the new tank? Should I wait till the water is less cloudly(it's pretty cloudly right now) or will my fish be ok?

The filter on my old tank is an internal whisper power filter rated for 15-30 gallon tanks.

 

[Tolak]

The filter on the 15 gallon has enough nitrifying bacteria to sustain the bio load in that tank. If you tranfer the same filter with the same fish to the new tank, your biological filtration will not be affected. The newer, larger filter should compensate for the smaller filter's lack of mecanical filtration.

As to the cloudiness, it could be caused by any new substrate added. This takes a few hours to a week to settle/filter out depending on the substrate. If it's real bad I would wait, some cloudiness won't hurt, I'm sure an excess of suspended particles from the substrate would hurt gills.

If no substrate was added, it's probably bacterial due to having a filter that isn't cycled. This won't harm the fish, and the cycled filter should help to clear it quickly.

 

[Araxen]

Aye, the cloudiness is from the black sand I used it in it. I'll wait till it clears up a bit and add the fish/filter in then.

Thanks for your help.