aquarium people, I need help!

[asscherisme]

I have a problem. I have a few aquariums and I have always cycled them before putting in fish. However, I'm in a position where I don't have time to cycle and don't want to kill my fish.

I have a small 10 gallon in my kitchen thats a bit overcrowded. It has 3 cories, 5 platties, and 1 mollie. Its never been a problem since I do frequent water changes and my water tests well and is nice and clear and my fish happy.

The tank has started leaking and I'm contantly trying to repari it and I'm fed up and ordered a 15 gallon acrylic hex tank from petco.com as well as a filter meant for a 40 gallon so my fishies will have nice clear water and more space. Its shippied and I should have it by Thursday. Its going to be a nice upgrade for the fish with the better filter I ordered and 50% more water. Not planning on putting more fish in there so they will have more space.

The problem is that the location of the 10 gallon tank is exactly where my 15 gallon tank is going and I don't have room there to put 2 tanks while the new one cycles.

I basically need to tear down the smaller one in order to set the new one up.

I can't put my small tropical fish into another of my tanks because I have dwarf cichlids and they would kill my tropicals.

I'm wondering if floating the biowheel in the new tank for a week or so will help it to cycle faster?

Should I change the water like twice a week for he first month or so?

I see no way other than putting my small tropical fish in a bucket with my heater, and then setting up the new tank, letting it sit for a few hours after conditioning the water to get the temperature stable and putting the new fish in.

I just don't want to lose any fish. My kids love the platties, mollie and cories and we have had them for a long time.

Also, I'm wondering if I should reuse the rocks so that will help get the good bacteria, or should I get new rocks because the rocks contain old waste (even though I vacuum it on a regular basis, that can only go so far)

Advice?

As a side note, I would never go glass again. My other tank is acrylic and I like it so much better. Yes it scratches easier, but its so clear and pretty and no leaking!

 

[Ali]

Save the water from the old tank and put it in the new tank.

Scoop out all of the rocks and put them in a bucket (or two) then pour the water in then add the fish. They can just hang out in the buckets while you set up the new tank. Reverse the process to put the rocks and water then fish into the new tank.

Good luck!

ETA: We're on the same page Lorelei!

 

[Lorelei]

Its been a long time since I have had fish, but as a suggestion what about syphoning the existing water and some of the plants and rocks as you say into the new tank then adding the fish? That way the water or most of it will be already conditioned for the fish.

ETA - great minds think alike Ali!

 

[asscherisme]

I'm using the same plants and I have this great tree trunk thingy that my cories love to hang out in.

So you guys are saying keep the same rocks, and fill the new aquarium with maybe 7 or 8 gallons of the old water so its almost like a 50% water change rather than a whole new starting over tank? I would need to keep at least 2 or 3 gallons to keep my fish in until the temperature stabalizes in the new tank. That should only take a few hours since its not a big tank.

The more I think about it, so it should not be much more of a shock than a major water change.

How often should I change the water on the new tank?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 8/25/2009 9:59:19 AM
Author: asscherisme
I'm using the same plants and I have this great tree trunk thingy that my cories love to hang out in.

So you guys are saying keep the same rocks, and fill the new aquarium with maybe 7 or 8 gallons of the old water so its almost like a 50% water change rather than a whole new starting over tank? I would need to keep at least 2 or 3 gallons to keep my fish in until the temperature stabalizes in the new tank. That should only take a few hours since its not a big tank.

The more I think about it, so it should not be much more of a shock than a major water change.

How often should I change the water on the new tank?

I would hold on till Ali comes back as it sounds she is very experienced with fish and its been years since I had any, but what I would do is use most of the old water and top up with fresh water so your ratio is mainly ' old' water, then do changes as usual once a few days have passed. That should let the good bacteria build that your fish are used to and if the old rocks are clean use those too maybe.

 

[treefrog]

I haven''t done freshwater in years but for saltwater, we call that "seeding the tank". I would think that should work fine for freshwater. It still may take some time for the cycles to get established but that time should be fairly short... certainly less than if starting from scratch.

A little help here Gailey???

Treefrog

 

[Gailey]

OK, here's what I would do:

Buy a new horse feeding bucket at the pet store.

Fill it half full of fresh water and leave it over night (if you usually but de-chlorinator in your water, do this instead of leaving it overnight)

Syphon water from old tank to top up bucket.

Buy a cheap air pump and air stone to aerate the water, add to bucket. Put heater in bucket to make sure water is at the same temp as existing tank.

Put fish from old tank in bucket, with a dose of Melafix and stress coat if you use it. Melafix is more important than Stress Coat.

Syphon the rest of the water into another bucket (perhaps buy two unless you know you've got a clean one that hasn't had chemicals in it.

When the existing tank is empty of water, take out all of the removable items and reserve.

HERE'S THE IMPORTANT BIT

Scoop out the existing substrate (gravel) and put it into the new tank. All the beneficial bacteria that are keeping your fish happy and healthy are colonised in the billions on the gravel in the bottom of the existing tank.

Place old items into new tank on top of gravel and fill with reserved water from bucket

Top up with water from 1st bucket. If possible, add filter from old tank to new tank. If this isn't possible put the new biowheel into the new tank and leave it there for a couple of days. This will help it absorb water properly and assist with the bacteria thing.

If by doing this it means you don't have an effective filter working in the new tank, don't worry. Simply place airstone into new tank from bucket when you add the fish.

Don't worry about the water being murky and dirty looking. That will be more of an aestheitic problem to you than it will be to the fish

If for some reason, you are not able to re-use the gravel, get a syphoning gravel cleaner and suck out as much of the gunk as you can from the gravel in the old tank and add this to the new tank. Treefrog is correct, this is called seeding the new tank. It won't be as effective as re-using the gravel, but it will be better than nothing. To be honest. it is more important to add as many "hard surfaces" from the old tank to the new than it is to re-use the same water. The beneficial bacteria does not live in the water, it lives on all the hard surfaces like the gravel, filter medium etc.

When you add the fish to their new home, I would also dose the tank with Melafix for a couple of weeks until you are satisfied that they are OK. Stress can lead to disease breakout.

I am heading out of the door in about half an hour but will be back tonight if you have any other questions.

Good luck!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Asscherisme - Just wanted to wish you luck! Be sure to post photos of your new tank when it's all set up. I'd love to see the trunk thing your cories hang out in.

 

[atroop711]

my DH is the aquarium guy (we have a 40 gallon salt water tank) so I will show him this thread when he''s home this afternoon.