Upgrading Tank

[ccskitten]

Dear all

Today I have aquired a secondhand 60 gallon tank. I currently have a 10 gallon set up. I don't really have room to have both tanks set up at the same time but can make do until Christmas (by Christmas the 10 gallon must be gone). I was just wondering what is the quickest way to cycle the new tank.

The 10 gallon has a fluval 2 filter and the 60 gallon has a filter tower.

Currently in the 10 gallon I have 2 rainbows, 2 xray tetra, 1 neon tetra, 3 platys, 1 common loach and 2 baby common plecs (I know its overstocked, that is the reason for upgrading!!

Any advice is much apreciated.

Kind regards

Cindy

 

[erk628]

Dear all

Today I have aquired a secondhand 60 gallon tank. I currently have a 10 gallon set up. I don't really have room to have both tanks set up at the same time but can make do until Christmas (by Christmas the 10 gallon must be gone). I was just wondering what is the quickest way to cycle the new tank.

The 10 gallon has a fluval 2 filter and the 60 gallon has a filter tower.

Currently in the 10 gallon I have 2 rainbows, 2 xray tetra, 1 neon tetra, 3 platys, 1 common loach and 2 baby common plecs (I know its overstocked, that is the reason for upgrading!!

Any advice is much apreciated.

Kind regards

Cindy

What I would do is go buy another filter for the 60 gallon take all the fish from the 10 put in the 60 and the filter on the 10 put on the 60. Run both filters at least until the new one has matured. The filter builds enough bacteria to handle the load your fish produce. The volume of water does not matter. You still need a second filter though because a 10 gallon filter won't be enough for a 60 gallon. So in reality if you do that know you can break the 10 gallon down tonight.

 

[SharonCC]

If it were me I'd set up the 60gal. and move the cycled Fluval to run on this tank. Run the Fluval alongside the new filter. I think the fish can be transferred immediately, as the Fluval has been carrying enough bacteria to cope with these fish. Assuming you get no spikes, add more fish slowly to increase the numbers of Rainbows and Tetras. (They are schooling fish)

Sorry...posted at the same time.

 

[ccskitten]

Yay, this is good news!!!

Cx

Also, would it help if I put all of the water from my 10g into the 60g?

 

[erk628]

Yay, this is good news!!!

Cx

Also, would it help if I put all of the water from my 10g into the 60g?

There would be some bacteria on the surface of the water but most of it is in the filter itself. So in saying that I personally would just put all new water in. It's up to you though if you just did a water change then you could go ahead and put it in if you haven't done one for a week I would just put new in. I personally have never put old tank water in. I wouldn't think it would hurt anything though. So it's up to you.

 

[waterdrop]

All the bacteria you care about are in the filter, it is not necessary to bring along water when you are trying to transfer a particular fish load that has a matching biofilter loaded to the same size.

However, the issue of whether your 10G water might be useful to your fish in your new 60G is different. It depends on how your tap water stats match up with your aged tank water stats. If you fill the entire 60G with new conditioned tap water then you might be transferring the fish between significantly different pH and/or KH levels, you just have to know or measure. The most likely scenerio is that the differences are minimal and you would be fine, but its better to know than to guess.

~~waterdrop~~