Upgrading Tank - Need Some Confirmation/help!

[JasonMichael]

Hey everyone!! So I've been doing some reading on the forum about previous experience people have had with upgrading there tank and what to do! I just wanted to get a confirmation / advise to triple check that I'll be doing everything right!! (don't want my babies dying on me!! )I'm upgrading from my 60 liter to a 350 liter (so excited right now).

- Once I position my new tank, I put in my sand (previously used gravel), and begin to fill with a hose (can I fill it half way and then dechlorine my water or will I need to do this before I put the water into the tank?).
- I can then add in my live plants, driftwood and rocks? (what's a good rock to use?)
- Fill the rest of the tank up with water and declorine that amount, switch on my heater and filter and wait til the correct temperature until transferring my fish over?

This is where I may need some assistance, do I either A) Put in my old filter and run that in my tank as well with the new one for a week or 2? or B) Place some of the old filter media into the new filter and off I go with the fish and all, no waiting time?

I'm just worried I may not be waiting long enough for my new tank to be set up correctly and don't want to stress my fish out etc... any advise or information with how long I should be waiting, what I should do or what I should be looking out for would be greatly appreciated!! I'm picking up my new tank in 2 days time! (Tuesday here in Australia!).

Thanks guys, also have to say this forum rocks!!

 

[m1lky12]

Hey, I'm in the middle of a tank upgrade aswell so I'm going through the same excitement as you too!! I've looked at this forum quite a bit whilst researching and going through the process of setting up my tank and have to say it's helped a lot. I'm sure one of the more experienced guys on here will come along and help you out aswell but here's the gist of what I've done and assumed is the correct way.

I set my tank up with sand, water, plants and ornaments, heater and filter and whatnot. Washing everything before I put it in, fair to say the sand took a fair bit of time! Personally I filled the tank with my normal tap water before treating it though I'm sure it doesn't make too much of a difference.

The next step is to cycle your tank, basically establishing colonies of bacteria to break down hazardous waste which can harm your fish, unfortunately this can take a few weeks and sounds pretty boring but it's a great way to get your tank to look the way you want it aswell as checking to make sure everything is working properly. Searching 'fishtank cycle' into a search engine will bring loads of results but I'm pretty sure there's a thread somewhere on here aswell, either way it'll tell you all the information you need. This does involve a fishless tank for a while but it's a lot better to have this patience than to put your fish in straight away and pretty much watch them be poisoned.

Out of interest what fish have you got at the moment?

 

[alistairw]

Welcome to the forum

You should be able to put the media from your old filter straight into your new one. If it isn't the right shape, just chop it up! Your filter will then be cycled. I am assuming that the new filter is bigger, so the extra media will soon be colonised by the good bacteria.

Are you adding the fish from your old tank? This should be fine as you will have the right levels of bacteria for them. I would just add any further fish slowly over the next few weeks so as to not over load your filter and allow the bacteria to catch up.

I haven't upgraded my tank, but I have put a new filter in and basically followed what I have written above and not had a single problem. It is a bit daunting if you haven't done it before but it does work!!

I am a bit jealous of you having a nice new big tank! Also that you live in Australia! Just come back from my honeymoon there!

Good luck!!

 

[JasonMichael]

Hey, I'm in the middle of a tank upgrade aswell so I'm going through the same excitement as you too!! I've looked at this forum quite a bit whilst researching and going through the process of setting up my tank and have to say it's helped a lot. I'm sure one of the more experienced guys on here will come along and help you out aswell but here's the gist of what I've done and assumed is the correct way.

I set my tank up with sand, water, plants and ornaments, heater and filter and whatnot. Washing everything before I put it in, fair to say the sand took a fair bit of time! Personally I filled the tank with my normal tap water before treating it though I'm sure it doesn't make too much of a difference.

The next step is to cycle your tank, basically establishing colonies of bacteria to break down hazardous waste which can harm your fish, unfortunately this can take a few weeks and sounds pretty boring but it's a great way to get your tank to look the way you want it aswell as checking to make sure everything is working properly. Searching 'fishtank cycle' into a search engine will bring loads of results but I'm pretty sure there's a thread somewhere on here aswell, either way it'll tell you all the information you need. This does involve a fishless tank for a while but it's a lot better to have this patience than to put your fish in straight away and pretty much watch them be poisoned.

Out of interest what fish have you got at the moment?

That's exciting!! Thanks for your help I'll give it a try. How long did you wait before putting fish in? As for my fish, I have a ghost knife, neon tetras, rams, a few bristle nose catfish and pakistani loach! How about you?

What type of tank do you have? Have you heard or do you know much about the 3D backgrounds? They look awesome!

Speak to you soon!

 

[JasonMichael]

Welcome to the forum

You should be able to put the media from your old filter straight into your new one. If it isn't the right shape, just chop it up! Your filter will then be cycled. I am assuming that the new filter is bigger, so the extra media will soon be colonised by the good bacteria.

Are you adding the fish from your old tank? This should be fine as you will have the right levels of bacteria for them. I would just add any further fish slowly over the next few weeks so as to not over load your filter and allow the bacteria to catch up.

I haven't upgraded my tank, but I have put a new filter in and basically followed what I have written above and not had a single problem. It is a bit daunting if you haven't done it before but it does work!!

I am a bit jealous of you having a nice new big tank! Also that you live in Australia! Just come back from my honeymoon there!

Good luck!!

Why thank you! This forum is awesome. Ohh great thanks for the tip of putting in my old media into the new one, my new filter is bigger, its inbuilt, I bought a Juwel Rio 300. What are your thoughts on internal vs external filter systems? I've read the internal ones in the Juwel are fine, but then some people say the external ones are better

Yep, I'm adding in the fish from my old tank to start off with, before buying any new ones haha - how long before I can place them into the new tank once I set it up with the old media etc.?

Haha that's awesome, hope you had a great time in Australia (And you visited Melbourne *shakes fist*).

 

[alistairw]

No worries!

I have been thinking of upgrading my filter to an external one next month. Talking to other more experienced members on this forum, the general consensus is that external filters are far superior! I think they are more powerful, more media for filtration (producing crystal clear water!!) and generally easier to clean. Plus you get more space in your tank!! Again, you can just chuck you media from original filter into it and you are cycled!

As to adding new fish, I would put your current stock in, leave a week or so just to let things settle down and makesure there are no problems and then introduce new fish gradually over the next few weeks. If you chuck a load in all at once, you may not have sufficient bacteria in your filter to convert the ammonia to nitrite, then nitrate. Be patient

With your current fish, I would get your new tank all set up with substrate, ornaments, plants and filter running with cycled media. Dechlorinate the water as you would with any water change and makesure it is a similar temp to what they have in your old tank. Maybe worth accilmatising them like you would new fish stock, but that should be it.

Unfortunatly we never got to Melbourne! We only had 3 weeks in Australia so did Sydney, Uluru, Cairns, Hamilton Island, Fraser Island (4x4 on our own, awesome!!) and then flew out of Brisbane! I friend of mine lives in Melbourne and I hope to go and see her, but just didn't have the time. Hopefully will go back out there in the next few years as another frind is emmigrating there tomorrow!!

Good luck with your tank, it should be fine!!

 

[m1lky12]

There's nothing quite like the excitement of getting a new tank and building it up from scratch! But I still haven't added any fish in yet, still just under a couple of weeks into my cycle and just waiting for my nitrites to drop, thought it would be quicker than this after my ammonia dropped to 0 after about 3 days. Ballpark figure is it can be anywhere from 2-6 weeks or even more! I'm hoping it's soon because my family are getting a bit fed up of having a nice new clean tank with nothing in.. if only they understood

And sounds like a nice assortment you have there, always enjoyed the ghost knife fish, though I'm curious as to whether they would see the tiny neons as a snack?

Well at the moment I only have 3 in my 50 liter, they're the survivors of years of inexperience when your too young to know any better and just go to the pet shop with your parents and just choose a random assortment of fish which just happen to take your pick that day. I have a featherfin catfish, what I think is a synodontis nigrita, though not 100% sure, and a single zebra loach, though the first thing i'll be adding to the tank is a few more loaches to keep him happy.

The tank I'm upgrading too is a 100l Aqua One UFO 550, not quite as epic a step up as your 350l but it'll keep me and hopefully my fishes happy until i can afford/convince my parents to let me get a much bigger one.

And I do enjoy the look of a 3D background, never had one myself, just seems a bit too much hassle at the time and never been in stock when I've been thinking of a new background, if set up right and maintained do look beaut though.. one day Haha how about you?

 

[JasonMichael]

No worries!

I have been thinking of upgrading my filter to an external one next month. Talking to other more experienced members on this forum, the general consensus is that external filters are far superior! I think they are more powerful, more media for filtration (producing crystal clear water!!) and generally easier to clean. Plus you get more space in your tank!! Again, you can just chuck you media from original filter into it and you are cycled!

As to adding new fish, I would put your current stock in, leave a week or so just to let things settle down and makesure there are no problems and then introduce new fish gradually over the next few weeks. If you chuck a load in all at once, you may not have sufficient bacteria in your filter to convert the ammonia to nitrite, then nitrate. Be patient

With your current fish, I would get your new tank all set up with substrate, ornaments, plants and filter running with cycled media. Dechlorinate the water as you would with any water change and makesure it is a similar temp to what they have in your old tank. Maybe worth accilmatising them like you would new fish stock, but that should be it.

Unfortunatly we never got to Melbourne! We only had 3 weeks in Australia so did Sydney, Uluru, Cairns, Hamilton Island, Fraser Island (4x4 on our own, awesome!!) and then flew out of Brisbane! I friend of mine lives in Melbourne and I hope to go and see her, but just didn't have the time. Hopefully will go back out there in the next few years as another frind is emmigrating there tomorrow!!

Good luck with your tank, it should be fine!!

Oh awesome, let me know how you go with the external filter I don't think I'm ready to spend more money like that just yet but I would assume in the future I will upgrade it, I'll see how I go with the internal one in the larger tank, I've heard there pretty good (obviously external would be better lol).

Thanks again for the advice, I'm just gonna take my time and make sure I'm doing it all right and not rush it(although when I get it I'm sure I'll be like a kid in a candy store haha!)

Ohhh sounds like an awesome time in Australia you would have seen some great sites there where are you from? Next time you visit you'll have to come to Melbourne

 

[JasonMichael]

There's nothing quite like the excitement of getting a new tank and building it up from scratch! But I still haven't added any fish in yet, still just under a couple of weeks into my cycle and just waiting for my nitrites to drop, thought it would be quicker than this after my ammonia dropped to 0 after about 3 days. Ballpark figure is it can be anywhere from 2-6 weeks or even more! I'm hoping it's soon because my family are getting a bit fed up of having a nice new clean tank with nothing in.. if only they understood

And sounds like a nice assortment you have there, always enjoyed the ghost knife fish, though I'm curious as to whether they would see the tiny neons as a snack?

Well at the moment I only have 3 in my 50 liter, they're the survivors of years of inexperience when your too young to know any better and just go to the pet shop with your parents and just choose a random assortment of fish which just happen to take your pick that day. I have a featherfin catfish, what I think is a synodontis nigrita, though not 100% sure, and a single zebra loach, though the first thing i'll be adding to the tank is a few more loaches to keep him happy.

The tank I'm upgrading too is a 100l Aqua One UFO 550, not quite as epic a step up as your 350l but it'll keep me and hopefully my fishes happy until i can afford/convince my parents to let me get a much bigger one.

And I do enjoy the look of a 3D background, never had one myself, just seems a bit too much hassle at the time and never been in stock when I've been thinking of a new background, if set up right and maintained do look beaut though.. one day Haha how about you?

I literally laughed out loud when you said "I'm hoping it's soon because my family are getting a bit fed up of having a nice new clean tank with nothing in.. if only they understood " hahaha!! I swear we all sound crazy to the people who don't know what is going on with aquariums LOL! Hopefully it's not too much longer and you can get your fish in there! Post some photos when you do

Thanks for the compliments with the fish, surprisingly the ghost knife didn't have my neons as a snack! At first, I thought it was the ghost knife who ate some neons however I then caught my Clown Loach attacking my ghost knife and neons one day!!! so I had to remove the clown loach, poor little thing. At the moment the Pakistani loach is having a laugh with the ghost knife, if it doesn't settle down in the new tank I may have to get rid of one of them...

Haha tell me about it, as we get more familiar with our tanks and our fish we learn more, we just think back and go "why did i do this for?!" lol, doesnt matter, happens when we're younger. Your 3 sound awesome, and same with the new tank, I'm sure there gonna love it! I just looked up the Aqua One tank and it looks great!! Post up a photo when you're all done and let me know haha would love to see it!

I've been thinking about the backgrounds lately, I looked them up today and I'm going down to a shop tomorrow to see them in person, videos on YouTube of them seem awesome as!! But, once you silicone them on it would be hard to change them, not impossible would just take time to remove it and put a new one if you wanted to haha. But I'll probably get it, looks great and it hides the cords from the back too that you can see through the glass haha

by the way, do you have an internal or external filter? The Juwel Rio 300 which I bought has an internal one which I heard works pretty good, but been doing a bit of reading and asking around, the external ones are better but hmmm...... lol. I don't know if can be bothered removing the internal one and replacing it with the external, not right now anyway.

 

[dbanner]

first off I'd like to say hello and welcome to the forum there are lots of knowledgable people on here that are always happy to help if they can. Myself included

The advice you have been given so far is very good as mentioned if your old filter is cycled then you can just take out the media and put it straight into your new filter. This should in theory instantly cycle your new filter and you will be safe to add the fish. Just be sure to give yourself a couple of days to check your water readings just to be on the safe side. If the media doesn't fit I'm sure it will after some cutting and persuading lol

I have the Rio 400 but will be upgrading sometime this month to an 8ft x 2ft x 2ft. I will be using different filters too and keeping my Rio so il just have to only use a quarter or half of my mature media in the new filters rather than all of it. I would advise you too take out the juwel internal filter and go with 2 external filters. The internals are not very good and plus they tank up room in the tank that could be used for fish swimming space

I use 2 tetratec ex1200's on mine running with a 300 watt hydor external heater (no heaters in the tank = more space / less clutter) the general rule is 1watt per litre of water but my 300watt external is more than capable of keeping my tank at the desired temp (27 degrees). It works by connecting onto the filters outlet pipe and then the water passes through the heater and gets pumped around the tank so you get no cold spots either. Also I noticed you had clown loaches? Not sure if you realise but a Rio 300 won't be big enough long term for those loaches. They need to be in groups of ideally 6+ and be in tanks no less than 5 feet long, the rio 300 is only 4 feet. However clown loaches do grow very slowly so they should be ok in that size tank for quite some time.

Good luck

 

[JasonMichael]

first off I'd like to say hello and welcome to the forum there are lots of knowledgable people on here that are always happy to help if they can. Myself included

The advice you have been given so far is very good as mentioned if your old filter is cycled then you can just take out the media and put it straight into your new filter. This should in theory instantly cycle your new filter and you will be safe to add the fish. Just be sure to give yourself a couple of days to check your water readings just to be on the safe side. If the media doesn't fit I'm sure it will after some cutting and persuading lol

I have the Rio 400 but will be upgrading sometime this month to an 8ft x 2ft x 2ft. I will be using different filters too and keeping my Rio so il just have to only use a quarter or half of my mature media in the new filters rather than all of it. I would advise you too take out the juwel internal filter and go with 2 external filters. The internals are not very good and plus they tank up room in the tank that could be used for fish swimming space

I use 2 tetratec ex1200's on mine running with a 300 watt hydor external heater (no heaters in the tank = more space / less clutter) the general rule is 1watt per litre of water but my 300watt external is more than capable of keeping my tank at the desired temp (27 degrees). It works by connecting onto the filters outlet pipe and then the water passes through the heater and gets pumped around the tank so you get no cold spots either. Also I noticed you had clown loaches? Not sure if you realise but a Rio 300 won't be big enough long term for those loaches. They need to be in groups of ideally 6+ and be in tanks no less than 5 feet long, the rio 300 is only 4 feet. However clown loaches do grow very slowly so they should be ok in that size tank for quite some time.

Good luck

Hey there!! Thanks very much, like I said before this place rocks quick question regarding the filter media, do I leave in some of the "new" media as well as putting in the old?

Hmmm, I'm curious about the external filters, i'm heading down to the LFS tomorrow and I'll have a chat to the guys there too, see how much it will cost etc... How hard was it to remove the internal filter from your Rio 400 and set up the externals with the pipes etc? Also, could i get away with one external filter instead of 2? Your upgrade sounds amazing, when are you doing all that?

I actually got rid of the clown loach as it was aggressive, I currently have a pakistani loach who enjoys chasing my ghost knife around lol, if that continues in the new tank I may have to get rid of him too

Thanks for your help, speak to you soon!

 

[dbanner]

Iv heard its better to add a bit of your mature media to start with and gradually add more and more over time.

I didnt personally remove the internal filter, the guy that had it before me removed it. Iv had 5 juwel tanks that have all been purchased 2nd hand and none of them have had the internal filters still in them. Like I said they take up room in the tank and running external filters is far better.

As iv always kept predatory fish like piranhas, bichirs, snakeheads, big cichlids like oscars, jags, dovii, flowerhorn, jack Dempsey and so on they are all big eaters and an internal juwel filter would be next to no good to me. The ex1200's I use cost £89 each, brand new and delivered. They are suitable for tanks of up to 500 litres each and are good for a water turnover of around 940lph each (litres per hour) when full of media. Iv owned many fluval filters too like a 205, 306, 405, 406 and fx5 but for all round looks, price and performance the tetratec wins hands down for me.

To connect the pipes and get it set up to the tank literally takes no longer than around 10-15 minutes. They come with very easy to understand instructions and self priming so it's a very easy process. Since I connected mine iv had no problems whatsoever with either. Only time I touch the filters now is to rinse them once every 2-3 months

And thank you, I'm very much looking forward to upgrading soon

 

[m1lky12]

Haha every day they see me with my test tubes testing my water and writing the results on my chart on my wall and they just think I'm mental for taking so much time, before I was too young to have any influence on what happened with the tank we just filled it up, treated the water and the fish were thrown fish straight in, I haven't had the heart to tell them it might be weeks before the fish are allowed in And I'll try get some pictures up to show you when it is finally ready!

And that's alright then, wouldn't want to get rid of such a beautiful fish! It's always good when you have a fish which is alot more placid towards it's tank mates then you'd assume it to be. Just a thought on the loach is that I've been told that loaches are a pretty sociable species and that they should be kept in groups of 5 or more, don't know whether that'll be for all loaches but that's what I was told about my zebra loach, might explain why your pakistani loach has been paying so much attention to your knife fish and maybe something to look at, especially seeing as your going to have a nice big tank that needs stocking. Also how did your bristlenoses do in your 60l? Been told they need atleast 125l and a decent filtration system due to their mess so just a bit interested?

Yeah don't think we made too many mistakes in terms of what fish we ended up with, generally just went for the cheap, colourful ones like tetras and danios. Only real issue was in terms of overstocking and getting shoaling fish in pairs or threes, though we did come back one day with what we thought was a bargain catfish, ended up burrowing under our bogwood and picking off our guppys a few a night, was back to the pet shop two days later, never 100% knew what it was, neither did the shop! Though I saw a discussion on here and have a suspicion it may have been a crystal eye catfish... that's a guess though

You've got me interested in the backgrounds now haha. I think they can give a tank a really natural look, though for the time being I'll be sticking to my clear blue background selotaped to the back of the tank, cheap and cheerful

And my filter is built into the hood of my tank so not quite sure if it's technically internal or external... think it would be cheeky to claim it's an external because from what I hear if you've got the choice and the money the external is the way to go!

 

[dbanner]

External filters are definitely the way to go as with most fish, the more filtration the better

As for the bristlenose plecs iv kept 2 before now in a juwel vision 180 (180 litres) with no problems and now I'm currently keeping one in a little 3ft 130 litre tank... Again with no problems. I personally wouldn't recommend keeping them in anything less than 125 litres. Also they need sand at the bottom of the tank instead of gravel. Gravel can damage their mouths. Also they are very messy. Mine BN plec is very small at around 3 inches and yet still produces a lot of waste. I mean to the stage where he is making mess as I'm cleaning the tank lol adorable little fish though

 

[JasonMichael]

Iv heard its better to add a bit of your mature media to start with and gradually add more and more over time.

I didnt personally remove the internal filter, the guy that had it before me removed it. Iv had 5 juwel tanks that have all been purchased 2nd hand and none of them have had the internal filters still in them. Like I said they take up room in the tank and running external filters is far better.

As iv always kept predatory fish like piranhas, bichirs, snakeheads, big cichlids like oscars, jags, dovii, flowerhorn, jack Dempsey and so on they are all big eaters and an internal juwel filter would be next to no good to me. The ex1200's I use cost £89 each, brand new and delivered. They are suitable for tanks of up to 500 litres each and are good for a water turnover of around 940lph each (litres per hour) when full of media. Iv owned many fluval filters too like a 205, 306, 405, 406 and fx5 but for all round looks, price and performance the tetratec wins hands down for me.

To connect the pipes and get it set up to the tank literally takes no longer than around 10-15 minutes. They come with very easy to understand instructions and self priming so it's a very easy process. Since I connected mine iv had no problems whatsoever with either. Only time I touch the filters now is to rinse them once every 2-3 months

And thank you, I'm very much looking forward to upgrading soon

External filters are definitely the way to go as with most fish, the more filtration the better

As for the bristlenose plecs iv kept 2 before now in a juwel vision 180 (180 litres) with no problems and now I'm currently keeping one in a little 3ft 130 litre tank... Again with no problems. I personally wouldn't recommend keeping them in anything less than 125 litres. Also they need sand at the bottom of the tank instead of gravel. Gravel can damage their mouths. Also they are very messy. Mine BN plec is very small at around 3 inches and yet still produces a lot of waste. I mean to the stage where he is making mess as I'm cleaning the tank lol adorable little fish though

I've gone into slight panic mode now haha, I've done a fair bit of reading up on the external filters and it seems like a good investment now rather than later and having the hassle of removing everything in the tank to remove the internal filter, so probably best to do it now. I was going to give the internal one a test run and see how it went but then.. whats the point, everyone is saying internals aren't the best so here we go! lol.

I've looked online and at a few stores and its rare to find Tetratec (the ex1200s) anyway! However here they stock a lot of Fluval and Eheim (although they are SO expensive omg), how did you find the Fluval 405? (that should be enough for my 350l tank yeah? or would I need 2 of the 306)? I read that you prefer the 1200s but I don't think I can get my hands on them stores stock the aqua ones etc... but I haven't heard great things... I'm so confused on what external to get and what I'm looking for exactly, do I want a high turnover (eg. 1000 liters an hour?) Theres too many to choose from, I will have a chat with the guys at the LFS but still, forum community people such as yourself would know a bit too! Any help on this would be great thanks

Haha the bristlenose are so adorable, I don't find them to be extremely messy though, however they are still quite small, only a year young

***EDIT*** - Alrighty, I've spent most of the day researching and called up a few shops around here, I'm thinking the Fluval 406 (around $275 AUD) and then purchasing black intake stem, strainer and spray bar (cuz I don't like the white/clear ones) and then buying a Hydor 300 inline heater instead of using the one in the tank (if I didn't get the inline heater at the moment could I get it down the track and install it?) Do you think this is a better investment now to get a better filter rather than using the internal one? I hope I can remove it properly I currently use the Fluval U2 inside my tank and it's been great! So I think the fluval is good (Eheim is too expensive for my budget at the moment and I cant get tetratec here).

So, my setup would consist of: Juwel Rio 300 Black, remove internal filter, install Juwel Stone Granite Background (http/www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/images/juwel/juwel-background-granite.gif), white sand with rock and live plants/dritwoof, fluval 406 filter with black piping. What's that sound like? I'm unsure yet about the background if it will close the tank in or not.... Anyway, let me know your thoughts