how to upgrade?

[chrisinha]

i want to upgrade my 10 g tank to 20 g. how should i do it? can i transfer the water in one to another? what about the substrate and decor? would it avoid having to go thru another cycle???? thanks in advance!

[Lazersniper]

If it were me, that would be exactly what I would do. I would put the fish in a bucket with tank water. I would keep at least five gallons of the old water (in the bucket with the fish of course). Then I would siphon the rest out while trying to vaccume the gravel as much as possible. Then I would set up the gravel and decor, fill up the tank, switch over the heater and filter, then add the fish. If you kept all the same media you shouldn't have to worry about a cycle. I've done this before from a 20 long into a 33 gallon. No problems.

[StreetCypher]

Same here.
I would transfer the filter and substrate (if you want to keep the same stuff, but if not thats fine). If the water you fill up your new tank with has the same parameters than theres no point in saving any old water, if its not you may want to mix old water with new water.

I did something similar with a 55g and a 180g. I had an XP2 and an AC500 running on the 55g. I seeded some extra media for the 3rd filter on the 180g. Set up the new tank, threw on the old filters as well as the new XP3 (with the seeded media), chucked the old substrate in place of black onyx sand. Water parameters were the same, so i threw in my fish. All is good so far.

[Cloud-9]

As was said, keep some of the water, clean out the gravel, take the old filter pad, etc. to the new tank. Let me give a humble personal opinion: It's not that easy to destroy the beneficial organisms in a cycled tank.

I've medicated fish tanks before and never noticed any kind of ammonia spike. Even erythromycin and methylene blue. I had to medicate with Kanacyn a few months back. My tank survived just fine. All the fish survived and are doing very well now. No ammonia spike whatsoever.

I would bet that your tank will be just fine. Just go easy on the feedings for the next couple of weeks.

[chrisinha]

thanks for your quick answers! i'll be doing it in 2 weeks or so. i'll let you know how it's going!

[FishKeeper-16]

You could try using cycle or stress zyme

[mayreee]

You could try using cycle or stress zyme

Believe me they don't work.

[tuvok]

Is there a limit to the size difference between tanks where this would work? While miving everything from a 20 to a 33 seems to be able to provide adequate bilogical filtration, would this work with using filter media or substrate seed material from a 5g to 40g tank? Would a fresh fisfhless cycle be required in that case? Just wondering.

[StreetCypher]

Your biological filtration is in relation to the amount of fish you have.
If you have a huge filter and only one fish, it will nitrify bacteria the same as having a tiny filter with one fish.
Hope that makes sense

[Harlock]

Your biological filtration is in relation to the amount of fish you have.
If you have a huge filter and only one fish, it will nitrify bacteria the same as having a tiny filter with one fish.
Hope that makes sense

What Spartan is saying is that yes, a 5g to 40g conversion will work just fine, until you add more fish. You would still need to add new fish slowly to prevent a major cycle.

As stated, the biological filtration is directly related to your bio-load. When you add to that bio-load you need to make sure your biological filter/good bacteria has a chance to catch up to the new occupants.

So, basically what I am saying is while you can switch a 5 gallon to a 40 with no cycle, if you switched to add more fish, don't add them all at once. Add them like you would to an already existing tank, a few at a time and then give the bacteria time to grow to accomodate those new arrivals before adding even more. This way you avoid having to force your fish through what basically ends up being a fishy cycle.

[tuvok]

Spartan, Harlok:
This makes complete sense. I am possibly going to be in the situation I just described above and was wondering if it would be better to do a fishless cycle from scratch or just add the 2 platies from the 5g to 38g tank and stock gradually. With that said how is gradually assesed in cases like this? I would like to add a school of some form of corydora catfish to begin with (bronze, panada or leopard subject to availability) and eventually a pair of angelfish. What would be a good stocking strategy? Oh, I am also changing the substrate but I could put some of it in a pot or something to add a bit more seed material if necessary. Sorry to hijack this thread, I hope my follow-up questions are still relevant. Thanks for the input so far.

[mrsdorothy]

What I would do is use the 5g for a quarantine tank. After you transfer everything to the 38g, keep the 5g going and quarantine your school of new fish in there. You can use a sponge filter for this. After quarantine, add 1/2 the school to the main tank, wait a few days testing your water to be sure there is no spike, then add the other 1/2 of the school to the tank. If you are going to add 2nd school of fish to the 38g, go through the same procedure again.

This is what I did when I upgraded to a 75g and had no problems.

Dorothy

[BayBayBay]

i want to upgrade my 10 g tank to 20 g. how should i do it? can i transfer the water in one to another? what about the substrate and decor? would it avoid having to go thru another cycle???? thanks in advance!
I think as long as you keep the substrate and half of the water. it should be good enough.

[chrisinha]

I think as long as you keep the substrate and half of the water. it should be good enough.

thanks!

now regarding this:


Sorry to hijack this thread, I hope my follow-up questions are still relevant.

i'm glad someone else could benefit from it! :p :D

[StreetCypher]

I think as long as you keep the substrate and half of the water. it should be good enough.
Also keeping the filter media is THE MOST important part.

[chrisinha]

okie!

is it going to be too stressfull for the fish? i dont want them to die!!

the 10 gallon tank has been set up for just 2 months... the reason i want to upgrade it is because i think it is overstocked. should i wait a little to upgrade it or is it ok to do it now??