Using A Second Hand Tank

[Teecee]

I have a chance of buying a rio 240 second hand, and was wondering if I could add fish more of less straight away. I should add that it is an in use mature tank.
Would it be just a case of keeping the filter wet and adding conditioned water as soon as I got it home?
Looking forward to any help you can give me.

 

[dthoffsett]

It is essential to keep the filter media wet when moving the filter to keep the bacteria alive. The tank can be emptied and then add conditioned water and the filter. Personally I wouldn't add extra fish right away, I'd give it a week or two to make sure you don't have a mini cycle, as some bacteria can die off from a lack of oxygen while the filter is unplugged.


Edit: Sorry didn't read your post correctly. How many fish are in the tank now? I wouldn't put more of your own fish in that are in the tank now, if that makes sense.
ex. The tank currently has 15 neon tetras. You have 10 platys. I wouldn't put more than 4-5 platys in the new tank at first, as 10 platys have a much higher waste capacity than 15 neon tetras. Make sense, or am I just rambling?
Ugh, gotta quit working so much overtime.

 

[karmagl]

I would also give it time for one to get the right temp and also there could be things in the tank already you don't want new fish exposed to hence parasites. give it a week or 2 and test your water levels just to be safe.

 

[Teecee]

Thanks for the advice, there's about a dozen community fish in the tank at the moment.
So it would be ok to take out these fish, keep in a small tank (18 inch) for a couple of hours with original water and put them straight back into large tank when refilled with conditioned water. Just have to make sure filter stays wet.
And then monitor for a couple of weeks before introducing any more fish.

 

[loachman]

Thanks for the advice, there's about a dozen community fish in the tank at the moment.
So it would be ok to take out these fish, keep in a small tank (18 inch) for a couple of hours with original water and put them straight back into large tank when refilled with conditioned water. Just have to make sure filter stays wet.
And then monitor for a couple of weeks before introducing any more fish.

should be, especially if the move doesn't take a long time. just acclimate the fish when they go back in to the tank like you would any "new" fish.