Question about new 10g

waiting a week would starve the bacteria. i would move the plants, gravel, filter media over and put a few fish in within a day or two. using the old tank water won't help your cycle, but it will make the change less stressful on the fish because the water will be the same. just keep your test kits handy and be prepared to either move a fish or two back to the old tank or do water changes. i don't think you will have a problem as long as you don't overload the tank right away. just a few fish at a time.
 
If it was me,

I would already be running the new filters on the old tank.

Then I would transfer the old filters to the new tank (after about a week). I would move over some rocks and decorations. I would also do a water change on my old tank but put the water in my new tank.

Once the tempature was good, I would transfer fish over.

The last tank I set up, we just used the filter media from an established tank and had new sand and decorations. We used some of the water (which was not needed, it just makes me feel better) and had danios (glofish) in it in hours.
 
I did exactly the same as johnlarson. Had the filter for my then-empty 5g running on my 90 for about three weeks. Scooped out some gravel and decor from the 90, plunked it into the 5, did a 50% water change on the 90 and then siphoned enough of the cleaned water out to fill the 5 gallon, then transferred my baby platy and a mystery snail into the 5. The only thing I was nervous about, doing it so quickly, was keeping the temperature stable in the 5. So I stuck on a glass thermometer and watched carefully for the first day to make sure the heater in the 5 wasn't too high. Oh, and btw, today I saw a new baby platy which I netted and added with the other one. This one makes me wonder if the first one isn't older than the two weeks I'd previously guessed because this new one is incredibly tiny!
 
I've got the new tank all set up. I conditioned the water when I added it. The temps are the same on both tanks, both at 80F, which is apparently what comes right out of my tap also, how convenient. I planted 3 amazon sword plantlets in there, 1 little java fern leaf and put a bit of java moss and hornwort. My son did not want a ton of plants and he's got a bubble making ornament.

I did not put any gravel or media filter into it yet, I figure I will wait until I begin transferring fish over to it. Question is...do I start tonight or wait till tomorrow? The water is crystal clear currently and it's been up and running for 4-5 hours.

I plan on moving the danios first along with the filter media, but will they be enough? How long should I wait to move the 2 platies over (they really aren't all that big, both being males and 1 being quite a bit smaller than the other one). All total I'll be putting about 4 inches of fish in there, if that because one of the danios is pretty small too. We may add more fish eventually to the tank. Especially if any of these fry that are in my main tank end up being males =)
 
Whenever I did a transfer like you are suggesting, I moved the media, gravel and fish over all at the same time. However, I did make sure the temp. was stable first. Other then that I think you should be fine.

Marinemom
 
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