This weekend i will be picking up my new 6 foot, 540 liter AquaGrand tank made by AquaOne, it has an inbuilt filter rated 2000 lt/hr

My current tank is 4 foot 350 liter with 1500 lt/hr Caniter Filter + internal Filter 2000 lt/hr

Instruction for the new tank
www.aquaone.co.uk/documents/Aquagrand120...s_lowres_new_000.pdf

My Fish
1x 10+ inch Tiger Oscar
1x 7 inch Black Ghost Knife
1x 6 inch Feather fin catfish (sydontis)
1x 3 inch Bristlenose
1x 2 inch Redtail Shark


I just wanted to get some advise about the big move!

The new tank will be taking the place of the old one......

What I planned to do was get a few large bucket or storage container (new) to put the the fish, gravel and all of the existing tank water in. I also planned to put an air stone in with the fish to help keep the oxegen levels up. Once the old tank has been cleared out put the new one in its place, add the gravel, driftwood ect. What i planned to do next was hook up my Canister from my old tank and run it along with the tanks in built filter, put the old water back in the tank put the fish in and the fill the rest of the tank with new water.

Will using the my old filter and water elimenate the cycling process? I also though it would the a good idea to put some bio media from the new filter in my old canister to get some bacteria growing on it before i put in in the filter.


Would this work, in my eyes it should be fine but i'm no expert

Any suggestion or advise would be much appriceated.

The last thing i want is to do someting stupid and harmfull for my fish. I will try to remeber to take pic as i go to post them on here!

Cheers Guys

BigTdotcom

your plan for transfering tanks seems sound to me. the only thing i would do that you didnt mention is to place a heater in the storage container along with the fish to keep the water warm.
when you do the transfer try to do it as quickly as possible to avoid any of the bacteria in your old filter form dying off.

using the old fiter and sub and water will eliminate the need to cycle your new tank. also i would keep the canister filter on the new tank for a long period of time. at first it will keep the water in good form(since it is already seeded) and secondly you can never have to much filtration on an oscar tank.

good luck with your switch over

Thanks mate, and yes i do plan to leave the old filter on the new tank forever.

well... cris got you covered...
good luck....
and picture pls... for the new set up...

I just had a thought......let me know what you think.

As Necro mention I should leave my canister off for as little time as possible to avoid loosing good bacteria

So would putting the entry and exit pipes of my canister filter in a storage container of existing tank water keep the bacteria alive and buy me a little more time? Obviously I want to do the whole thing as quick as possible to lessen the stress on the fish but I want to keep all my bacteria happy as well.

yes it will give you additional time.
moreso if you let it run inside the storage
tank.... oxygen in running water is the primary
source of life of good bacteria in your media.