moving fish from 6ft to 3mtr tank

hi

my new 3mtr tank has been given a clean bill of health and is ready to be filled (thanks @spider for his help)


i will be moving my fish from the six ft( About 800 liters of water ) to the 3 meter which is about 1200ltrs of water .

what would be the quickest way to do this , do i just let the new tank cycle for about three weeks ?

or is there someway that i can use the water and filter media in the new tank , considering that there will be about four hundred ltrs of water that will need to be added .

personally i dont mind waiting to cycle the tank, but also dont want to waste the 800 ltrs of water in the old tank, as i will be changeing it to a sump filter system so i have to empty it anyway .

unfortuantely i dont have another tank big enough to house the fish temporarily as they are big fish .


any ideas ?

 

@Enver - Take your 800l and put it in your new tank. Then add the additional 400l. Equates to a 30% water change. Then add your chemicals and fish imo. Oh wait. Nowhere to house the fish. Take 400l and add it to 400l in the new tank. 50% water change. Move fish. Add remaining water.

 

Well i would say if you can add the sand from the 6ft with the 800L water and use the old filter on the 3m tank for 2-3weeks it wont be a problem. then its actaully just a WC you are doing

 

its a lot of water haha

 

+1.

 

@Ryno - If he is only doing a theoretical water change (same filters, substrate etc), why the 2-3 weeks? All the bacteria etc is there.

 

hi

i cant add the sand becaus ei have moved over to pool filter sand on the new tank , and the old tank is gravel.

so will do what @Markhawk suggested , and also move the filter media. will add some seachem stabily and prime to help the process along .

 

@MarcHawke the #m tank probably have its own filter? its just to give the new filter chance to build Bacteria...... or else you put all the fish into a tank with a filter which havent been cycled.

 

guys i have another option, if i take some of the filter media out of my old tank and some of the water and start cycling my sump only for a few days first , them make the move , will that help.

i have a spare pump and plumbing to cycle the sump , on its own ,and i have to do a water change on the old tank anyways today .

 

@Ryno - I assumed the old filter would be moved to the new tank. :blink1:
@Enver - I did this when I moved to my 100l from a 30l and it worked fine but that was me. I am new to fish keeping so I don't want to give you bad advice. Can you bag the sand and leave it in the new tank for awhile and then remove it later?

 

@Enver. This will work if you have a spare container of lets say 400Ltr that is treated to fill up the tank along with the other water you will transfer to the 3m tank. If I understand you correctly you want the sump only to collonize bacteria and then put water into the tank afterwards? I am just trying to understand what exactly the hickup is here.

The best way stays to move everything over at once. And then adding the remaining 400Ltr of treated water to top up. It would be as though you did a water change. You allready have a filter that has bacteria collinized inside it. the fact that you are changing to pfs isn't a big issue. Just rinse it thorough not to put all the fine grit into the tank.

The gravel has some bacteria in it. So I'll take a few scoops in a flour sieve and add it into the tank so these can start spreading. After two or three weeks you can remove the sieve and it sghouldn't have mixed the gravel into the sand.

HTH

 

what i wanted to do is to allow the sump to colonise the bacteria , and then add the water from the old tank , plus 400 ltrs of new water .

but i am going to use all the ideas above including , bagging some of my gravel and putting it into the new tank, add seachem prime and stability and that should be work out well. .

 

Your fish will be safe. hope we get to see pics soon 6ft sump is huge hehe. i wish i could have a 6ft tank:listen: hehe

 

Good luck. Remember to post pics..:captain:

 

@Ryno lol my sump is not six foot ,my old tank is but there is always one day ,on the next monster tank that i will need a six ft sump

 

@Enver hi dude. Here's what i would suggest you do, firstly fill the 3m tank with new water (dont worry too much about the old water, it is not the main element in your tank that holds the bacteria) let the tank run for 24 hours to make sure all the chlorine has evaporated. Then you add whatever chemicals you want to that you feel will speed up the process of cycling. Once you've added the chemicals you take a portion of your old filter media to the filter compartment of your new sump. It doesnt have to be much. Just a bit to seed your new filter with bacteria. You can add fish the next day. Thats how i did it with my 2m and i didnt even use the fancy bacteria chemicals. even better would be to add a handful of seeded gravel to the new gravel but you say you cant do that. Say hi to @spider for me

 

I think @mydummyname has it pretty much nailed, the water is not that important as a medium for housing the beneficial bacteria, not much held there at all. Seeding the filter to get it going seems to be the best way of doing it, did it on my tank after trying with start up mutis first that didnt get it going(nearly lost fish) seeded the filter with a sponge from another cycled tank and within 12 hours it was 100% better and within 24 hours it was pretty much back to normal. The bacteria colony will double every 15 to 24 hours to take up the load until its in balance(food source = size of colony). All things being equal you shouldnt have any probs at all

 

very good point here brent, when we introduce the fish to the new tank, many fish wont eat much, or at all until they've settled in, so a lot of the food gets wasted initially and puts more strain on the biological process, a very good idea would be to keep the feeding very very light until they've settled in, this will also keep the bioload nice and low initially.+1

 

mydummyname is spot on as usual :bigsmile:. Clean water in new tank with a good dechlorinater and some airstones, then wait for temp to settle. By the time the temp has settled to your preferred temp then all baddies will be out of your water. i would stock sump with at least 50% old media. then feed very little for the next 3-weeks.

 

Similar to what @mydummyname has mentioned I moved my fish from my 4ft to their new 6ft home last night. My process was to fill the 6ft a few days back add Seachem Prime, let the pump run to get rid of all the tiny bubbles (which can cause harm if it gets into the fish's gills). Got the water up to temp, then moved all my bio media from the 4ft sump to the 6ft's sump while I was dripping the water from the 6ft with the fish in a 80litre tub. Acclimatised the fish for a few hours and netted them and added them to their new 6ft home. This morning they where are pretty happy in their new home. I will reduce feeding until they are settled though. Same fish, same bio media. I've done this before from a 3ft to the 4ft, so I know its a successful method.