Setting Up A New Tank

[GoGuppy]

G'day all

I've bought my new tank, a 36" x 18" x 20" one, which I believe is about 240 litres, and am now thinking about the cycling of it. Usually, the recommendation for fishless cycling is to add ammonia (3 to 5ppm) to the water for the first few days until the nitrate level falls to near zero, then spikes off the chart and hopefully subsequently drops to near zero level again. The tank is now fully cycled having successfully achieved the 'nitrate spike' and brought it back to zero.

Usually, it is also recommended to add to the new filter some filter medium that is already seeded with 'good' bacteria from a filter working on an established aquarium, to speed up the cycle process.

My question is now, if I use the filter from my old tank complete with the old (and thus bacteria rich) medium on the new tank, together with new substrate, aged water and my 'old' fish and plants, would I still need to cycle the tank? Or, would the bacteria in the 'old' filter be OK to take on the new tank without further fuss? For completeness, the tank will hold mainly rainbows and be heavily planted, with CO2 injection.

Look forward to your suggestions. :biggrin:

Cheers.

[wombat1100]

Hi Guppy, from what i understand as long as the filter , water and medium in the canister filter are fresh ie straight from the already cycled tank, you should be right , BUT is it worth it if its not absolutely necessary?
Also if you are replacing your old tank with this new one you could also transfer all of the water from the old tank into the new tank and then i wouldn't think you would have a problem at all.
Just a thought,
Dazz

[GoGuppy]

Thanks Dazz

Fair comment, I'd rather err on the side of caution, but was not sure if using old medium speeds up the cycle or not. And if so, by how much? :wacko:

Re using the water, I guess it may help slightly, but my understanding is that the good bugs live in the filter medium and (seasoned) substrate, etc, not in the water, so that even large water changes do not deminish the bacteria levels. :biggrin:

Thanks again
Cheers

[joz]

Hi GG, I used to set up brand new tanks for my Discus for breeding.From empty one hour to ready for fish the next.
But for this I used aged and carbon filtered water(correct temp),then into the brand new filtration system I added a handful of biological filter medium.
Presto the tank is ready!!!!

[GoGuppy]

Hi GG, I used to set up brand new tanks for my Discus for breeding.From empty one hour to ready for fish the next.
But for this I used aged and carbon filtered water(correct temp),then into the brand new filtration system I added a handful of biological filter medium.
Presto the tank is ready!!!![/b]

Hey Joz, that's interesting. I had by now accepted that I would need to cycle the new tank to err on the side of caution, but from your experience this may not be necessary.

I have aged water in the old tank, plus heaps of biological media from the old filter so this should not be a problem. The other thought I had is that since I will be aiming at a pH of around 6.5 there should be no nitrites or nitrates generated, as the acidic water prevents this. I've got peat grannules and use these to keep the pH acidic and thus hopefully eliminate or reduce the nitrite spike during the cycle process.

I'll be changing over to the new tank in a week or two and proceed on the basis of your suggestion, unless anybody else chips in and convinces me this would not be a smart move.... :blush: .
Thanks again, cheers

[joz]

Hi again GG,seriously I did this(many many times) with those super temperamental fussy discus without even the slightest hiccup.
Some times it even triggered breeding behaviour.
But i must stress that the water be aged and of quality suitable for fish,meaning not just an old festering barrel from out the back of the shed.
Then with just a handful of active,live biological medium added to a new filter your tank is ready.
Just be careful of the usual things such as that the water parameters are correct.

Remember your cycling a tank to get just a few basic results.
1.to age your water.
2.To grow benificial bacteria in your filter.

All this can be bought together separetly.

[GoGuppy]

joz, mate, you've convinced me.

I have an 80L tank and the new tank is about 240L. After putting in the washed substrate (dupla 'ground' over a layer of 'terralit' fertiliser) I was intending to transfer about 40L of water from the old tank to the new tank, then to make up the rest with de-chlorinated tap water at the right temperature.

When the tank is about one third filled, I intend to add all the biological media from the old 203 fluval filter (that is from all three plastic baskets) to an old (but only run for about two days) 304 fluval filter and start running this on the new tank. I'd also have the heater running on the new tank at this stage and would start shifting some or most of my plants over.

Once the new tank is full and settled down, do think it would be OK to move the fish over from the old (now half empty) tank to the new one?

Obviously, I would need to monitor amonia, nitrate and nitrate levels for the next few days, and do water changes as required. Anything else I should do or keep an eye on?

Thanks again joz. Cheers

[joz]

All seems just fine.Trust me :biggrin: ....if your really nervous is there anything that you'd be willing to sacrifice(put them in only and test).Because you won't loose anything,all will be fine.
I'd be surprised if there was any movement in the ammonia and nitrite.



Again all the tank needs active ,alive ,benifical bacteria.
Just having the 240 litre tank circulating for a couple of days will age it just fine.

Also probably the whole time I kept masses of discus I never used water conditioner,I have always believed in removing chemicals rather than adding.....
My storage systems were continuosly connected to activated carbon filters,this way chemicals added by the water board were also removed.

I know people say what about medication,but thats different.

[GoGuppy]

Thanks joz, I'll let you know how I go over the coming weeks. :rolleyes:

Cheers

[GoGuppy]

All seems just fine.Trust me :biggrin: ....if your really nervous is there anything that you'd be willing to sacrifice(put them in only and test).Because you won't loose anything,all will be fine.
I'd be surprised if there was any movement in the ammonia and nitrite.

Again all the tank needs active ,alive ,benifical bacteria.
Just having the 240 litre tank circulating for a couple of days will age it just fine.[/b]

Hey joz

Just thought I'll let you know how things went with the change over to the new tank.

Well, in fact I followed your advice in the earlier postings and it wll went extremely well with zero casualties!! :biggrin: .

I did take care to ensure I used all the active media from my old filter by placing all in the new(ish) 304 Fluval, plus added more new biological medium to fill the space left in the filter baskets.

I managed to buy 10 new buckets for ten bucks at woolies, so was able to save all my old tank water, except for the last 50mm at the substrate. I used the old 203 filter filled with floss (in parallel with the new filter) to get rid of the cloudiness in the water, it cleared up completely within about five days.

The other thing to note, is that I did a fair bit of planning in the days leading up to the change over, and produced a list of things to do in the right order; I ended up with about twenty dot points on the list. Having said that the whole exercise only took a few hours one Saturday morning, with a bit of follow up fine tuning over the next few days.

The tank has now been populated for about two weeks and the fish all look very happy with their new home. Must say though, that they look tiny in the larger aquarium, but I guess they now have more space to stretch their fins :rolleyes: .

Thanks again joz, cheers