move established tank to new tank

[Duckie]

I use to have UG in every tank I had back in the 80s. For some reason I just don't use them anymore. Still have a bunch hanging around even the one I had in a 90.

If this were mine I would first remove all the fish and get them into buckets. Get the gravel into buckets and then put the plates in the 180. In the center. I'd leave the ends with just gravel so I could heavily plant the sides and give the fish plenty of swimming room in the middle. Anyhow, the old gravel goes over the plates. New gravel over the glass. Add new, conditioned water a little less than half way and let the water clear up a little. Add all the water I could save from the 75. Add the fish/water back into the tank. Top off with new water. Your BB is in the gravel not the water. At least there isn't much in the water.

One thing I've never done with a QT is worry about cycling. It is after all a quarantine tank and realistically you should be changing water in it. If you are then ammonia has no chance to build up. Personally I don't "technically" quarantine fish. However most of the ones I come home with from our society club auction are going into new tanks anyhow. I get home and add water to a tank add fish. Done. Some of those tanks eventually get a filter. Thing is my tanks have a low bioload. Your 180 with the fish from the 75 will also have a low bioload. You should have little to no cycle. BTW if you decide to get a canister run it for a week or two on the 75 to seed it.

Thank you for your input. Putting all the fish in buckets is not going to be possible, I am afraid. The biggest bucket I have is a 5 gallon and I wouldn't want to put the Bala in there, even if only temporary. Wouldn't want to stress him out in a bucket too small to turn around. I rethought the whole move and ordered enough UG plates for the new tank and 2 new powerheads. Will let the new tank establish and cycle before moving the fish over. It is silly to try to save the $45 it costs for the extra plates and then having to move everything over at once since the old tank is half tore up.

You say that my bioload is very low? I thought that the fish I got in the 75 right now is way too much - at least when considering them after growing some. No, they are not messy goldfish or oscars. Unless you are saying that the fish I have are not producing a lot of waste compared to other fish? There is 6 tankbusters in there right now - the bala and iridescent sharks. And the clown loaches are in the minimum recommended tank for young fish - right now it is the bare minimum for them to thrive, not suiteable past the first few years. I am already worried what will happen when the "shark" outgrow the 180 and I need to find them a new loving home. The last iridescent sharks that we had years ago outgrew the 75 - the biggest of them had a hard time turning around in the 18 inch wide tank with well over a foot in length (probably close to 14 or 15 if memory serves right). The only stipulation when we sold them was that the guy that took them had to catch them out of our tank himself. Was relatively easy to find someone with a bigger tank than a 75, especially since we only asked about $30 for 3 of them - would have given them away for free, but the new owner might not take care of them without a monetary investment.

I would love to get a bunch more clown loaches once the 180 is running for a while, but I am too afraid that the tank won't be able to handle them once grown out a bit. Rather have a really low bioload than too much. I was under the impression with the selection of fish my 75 is way overstocked, and just barely appropiate for the 180.

 

[GraphicGr8s]

Thank you for your input. Putting all the fish in buckets is not going to be possible, I am afraid. The biggest bucket I have is a 5 gallon and I wouldn't want to put the Bala in there, even if only temporary. Wouldn't want to stress him out in a bucket too small to turn around. I rethought the whole move and ordered enough UG plates for the new tank and 2 new powerheads. Will let the new tank establish and cycle before moving the fish over. It is silly to try to save the $45 it costs for the extra plates and then having to move everything over at once since the old tank is half tore up.

You say that my bioload is very low? I thought that the fish I got in the 75 right now is way too much - at least when considering them after growing some. No, they are not messy goldfish or oscars. Unless you are saying that the fish I have are not producing a lot of waste compared to other fish? There is 6 tankbusters in there right now - the bala and iridescent sharks. And the clown loaches are in the minimum recommended tank for young fish - right now it is the bare minimum for them to thrive, not suiteable past the first few years. I am already worried what will happen when the "shark" outgrow the 180 and I need to find them a new loving home. The last iridescent sharks that we had years ago outgrew the 75 - the biggest of them had a hard time turning around in the 18 inch wide tank with well over a foot in length (probably close to 14 or 15 if memory serves right). The only stipulation when we sold them was that the guy that took them had to catch them out of our tank himself. Was relatively easy to find someone with a bigger tank than a 75, especially since we only asked about $30 for 3 of them - would have given them away for free, but the new owner might not take care of them without a monetary investment.

I would love to get a bunch more clown loaches once the 180 is running for a while, but I am too afraid that the tank won't be able to handle them once grown out a bit. Rather have a really low bioload than too much. I was under the impression with the selection of fish my 75 is way overstocked, and just barely appropiate for the 180.

When you transfer the fish to the 180 they will be in a tank more than double the current tank size right?
If you are at 1009% capacity in the 75 than you should be less than half maximum on the 180.
Personally I wouldn't be running UG in a 180. I'd be looking at a sump/trickle or a good canister.

 

[Duckie]

When you transfer the fish to the 180 they will be in a tank more than double the current tank size right?
If you are at 1009% capacity in the 75 than you should be less than half maximum on the 180.
Personally I wouldn't be running UG in a 180. I'd be looking at a sump/trickle or a good canister.

Yes, correct. The 180 is more than twice the size. Right now I already added a bunch of fish to the 75 in anticipation of the bigger tank. I wouldn't have the stock in there right now long term in the 75. Even before adding the tetras, extra iridescent sharks and clown loaches, I knew I had to upgrade to a bigger, especially longer tank eventually. The sharks and clowns need more room to swim.

I will think about a sump with wet/dry trickle filter once I can figure out how to build an overflow box that pulls water from different heights of the tank and not just from the top.

 

[GraphicGr8s]

This draws from all 33 levels. Mine will only skim though.

http://dramaticaquascapes.com/PVC_Overflow_11.html

 

[Duckie]

This draws from all 33 levels. Mine will only skim though.

http://dramaticaquascapes.com/PVC_Overflow_11.html

Thank you for the link. You meant 3 levels, not 33? Wow, that looks like a lot of work. How does your skim from top overflow box work for you? Is that the only filter, and would you have rather spent the extra time building a multilevel overflow box (assuming your box is diy as well)? Am I looking at needing two boxes - one at each end - for the 6 foot 180? I have the tank marked on the wall already, and it looks enormous (compared to the 75) even though it is "only" 2 feet longer.

 

[GraphicGr8s]

Thank you for the link. You meant 3 levels, not 33? Wow, that looks like a lot of work. How does your skim from top overflow box work for you? Is that the only filter, and would you have rather spent the extra time building a multilevel overflow box (assuming your box is diy as well)? Am I looking at needing two boxes - one at each end - for the 6 foot 180? I have the tank marked on the wall already, and it looks enormous (compared to the 75) even though it is "only" 2 feet longer.

Yes. All three levels. My finger stuttered.

My nephew is running this on his 125 six footer and it does fine. He's got one on each end.

While I have all the parts I have not built any yet. It is my intention to build at least 4 for different tanks and modify the sizes to fit the tanks. Looking at the setup version my nephew has I like it a lot.
One thing to remember though. While it is a nice design it has the same problem as any other overflow. It can get an air lock in the elbow going over the tank and that will stop flow. I am using an over flow box on one tank I have and even though it is designed with integral "j" tubes (the overflow part is actually a two chamber "U".) it too has the same problem. Air. It has a hole with a check valve to evacuate the air and I need to do it about once a week. I had the overflow in a tank that was higher and it needed purging almost every other day. With any overflow I highly recommend getting a pump on it to maintain the siphon. On mine it's not really too big a deal since I can see when there is air in it and I am out in the fish house every day or every other day and I do look to see what is happening in the tanks I have there.

 

[Duckie]

Yes. All three levels. My finger stuttered.


My nephew is running this on his 125 six footer and it does fine. He's got one on each end.


While I have all the parts I have not built any yet. It is my intention to build at least 4 for different tanks and modify the sizes to fit the tanks. Looking at the setup version my nephew has I like it a lot.
One thing to remember though. While it is a nice design it has the same problem as any other overflow. It can get an air lock in the elbow going over the tank and that will stop flow. I am using an over flow box on one tank I have and even though it is designed with integral "j" tubes (the overflow part is actually a two chamber "U".) it too has the same problem. Air. It has a hole with a check valve to evacuate the air and I need to do it about once a week. I had the overflow in a tank that was higher and it needed purging almost every other day. With any overflow I highly recommend getting a pump on it to maintain the siphon. On mine it's not really too big a deal since I can see when there is air in it and I am out in the fish house every day or every other day and I do look to see what is happening in the tanks I have there.

Oh, this is new to me. I heard about the overflows occasionally losing siphon, but not quiet this regularly. While it is not really a problem to fix it, it is still bothersome. Maybe something nobody talks about since it is part of the deal you get from " cheaping" out vs a real internal overflow box with a drilled tank.

Impatience got the better of us this weekend. Tank is moved, old tank is tore down. While we got almost everything so we could have run both tanks together for a while, we didn't. Two fish did not make the transition - and surprising it was the two biggest that couldn't handle moving to a different tank with so much more fresh water. The last time we did a 75% water change it did not bother the balas at all. This time combined with new environment and the extra stress of catching them it didn't work. :uhoh:

Everybody else is doing great - if anything they are all more active and swimming around. Now I am not even sure if I will ever attempt to get another bala shark. Warnings against them are usually due to size, not their super sensitivity concerning a new tank. I feel like a really bad fish parent - plans to setup the 75 again and trying out saltwater are put on ice indefinite.

Attached is a picture about 26 hours after the move.