Help with moving an existing 10 gallon tank to 60 gallons

[PeggySNew]

Hello Everyone,

I've made the jump to buying a 60 gallon fish tank to move my 10 gallon tank group to bigger and better living conditions.
I currently have the following fish and would like to pick some experienced brains to find out what you'd suggest for new tank mates for them.
Current fish:
Chocolate Pleco (about 6 to 10 inches) Its really his tank the rest just live there
2 upside down cats
3 assorted corys
about 13 guppies(they won't stay still to get an exact count)

I'd like to add some schooling fish like some tetras, and possibly some platties...

What would be a good suggestion?

Thank you all in advance,

 

[Vincenia]

Is the 60 gallon tank setup yet? If so, let it cycle for awhile, till healthy bacteria grows in the filter, which takes about a month. Doing water changes once a week and testing the water about once a day. If cycled already, don't transport all the fish at once, little by little.

 

[Rbishop]

What kind of filter are you currently running on the 10 gal? Filter plans for the 60 gal?

 

[esoepr1976]

When your 60 gallon tank is cycled and ready for fish, I would recommend getting your cories some friends. I would have at least three of each kind of cory you have. Platties aren't really a schooling fish (although they do get along well with each other). They are another live bearing fish like the guppies, and will make more platties just as I'm sure your guppies make more guppies. As for the tetras, you might be able to have a school of a small tetra, but then again, your guppies could take over and populate the tank all by themselves. If you do want some tetras, you could maybe do some hatchet tetras--these fish will swim near the top of the tank, and then you will have fish at the bottom middle and top levels of the tank. Just don't let it get overstocked with the guppies reproducing, and make sure you are doing lots of regular water changes.

Emily

 

[tanker]

I love my brass tetras. They looking like a school of tuna.

 

[SubRosa]

Are the fish still in the 10? If so, the easiest way to move them safely is to break down the 10 completely, move the fish, the filter and all of the substrate into the larger tank. Of course you'll want to run the new filter as well. Let the system run a few weeks and you can remove the 10 gal filter. Let it go a few more and then strat increasing the tock.

 

[PeggySNew]

Thanks everyone... I was planning to run the 10 gallon tank filter with the 60 gallon tank already for awhile. The substrate I plan to do away with because there are snails in there that I don't want to move to the new tank.

 

[Coler]

Generally the idea when setting up a new tank, where you have already a cycled tank, is to transfer sufficient bacteria from the established tank over to the new set-up so as to avoid having to cycle the new tank. You can do this in a number of ways :-

1. Set up your filter for the new tank in the old tank for a few days before setting up the new tank- it will pick up a good load of bacteria.
2. Set up your new tank as you choose. Squeeze out your filter media from the old tank into the filter media from the new tank. This will get you going as well.
3. Set up your new tank, using the substrate and/or decor from the old tank. Quite a lot of the necessary bacteria seem to reside on surfaces in the tank.
4. If not using the old tank substrate, put into some nylon pantyhose and leave it in the new tank for a few days - you can dump it then.
5. Set up your new tank, using the filter from the old tank - simples.

Problems might be :-

1. You want to keep the old tank running - so use methods 1 or 2.
2. Your filter from the old tank is not appropriate/big enough for the new tank - you need to get a new filter in that case.

Problems can arise if you stock up the new tank too quickly, so that bioload exceeds bacterial capacity. You can avoid this by introducing your fish in smallish groups leaving a few days between each batch and monitoring ammonia/nitrite build up with a good liquid drop test kit.

You can also cause problems if you don't get some fish into the new tank immediately, or feed the bacteria using some other source, as your bacterial colonies will not survive without food - you can just use fish food (about as much daily as you would tend to feed into the old tank will maintain the colonies).

As regards the OP's tank moving the filter from the 10 into the 60 is fine but its unlikely that filter will be a success on the tank in the medium or long term. As a general rule you want to rotate the water in the tank through the filter something like 7 to 10 times an hour depending on the specifics of the tank inhabitants (heavily planted, low stock = less, heavily stocked/messy cichlids = more. I run two cannisters that do a combined 2,800 LPH on a 180 Litre tank of Africans myself but that's just me).

So, OP, I would suggest that you look at good external cannister filters for the 60 and get one set up as soon as possible, running the filter from the 10 for a week or so just until the new filter is seeded.