I’m new to the hobby. I currently have a 10 gallon tank and I’m planning to upgrade to a 20 gallon. I’d really appreciate any advice on how to make the transition as smooth as possible for my fish. Can it all be done in the same day or will I need to wait for my new tank to properly cycle the way I did when I started my 10gal from scratch? Chemicals needed? TIA😊
Posted by jordouchebag
3 Comments
The vast majority of your beneficial bacteria (what you’re letting grow during a tanks cycling) is contained within your filter. It looks like you have a sponge filter, which you should keep moist in a sealed container of tank water during the move (large fish bag or bucket with lid). It must be tank water to keep the bacteria alive. Putting this filter into the new tank with warmed, declorniated water. I’d dose seachem stability or equivalent product if you have any handy just to ensure things go smoothly. Moving as much of the old tank water as possible will also help with stability in parameters.
are you planning on keeping the 10 gallon tank up? if so, id recommend purchasing the new filter now and running it alongside the current filter so it can build up it’s own beneficial bacteria. you can give the current one a squeeze to distribute some beneficial bacteria. after that, you should be able to use the new filter in the 20 gallon without having to cycle from start again.
as someone mentioned, use as much of the old tank water as you can to reduce chances of shocking your livestock
If you put everything over to the new tank, all the deco and also the substrate (and ofcourse the filter) there should be enough beneficial bacteria to handle the new tank. Make sure to also add the water from this tank so it will be like a 50% waterchange and not too much of a shock. Make sure to do watertests the following days to see if indeed all the parameters stay stable. If you see any ammonia or nitrites coming up do a 30% water change.
So what I would do:
Get all the fish out, hold them in a bucket of the old tank water with the filter and heater. If possible get most of the water into other buckets. Remove the plants and deco, keep them in one of the filled buckets. Remove the substrate and put it in the new tank: see if it is enough or add more new substrate. Since you have cory’s I would definitely add sand, maybe you can have the old substrate in the back and sand in the front for example.
Add the plants and deco, add the old water and add new dechlorinated water, add the filter and heater and then add the fish 🙂