Moving fish to larger tank?

[jadedreams]

Guys, I have assorted African Cichlids in a 55 gallon tank. I have a 110 gallon tank that I want to move them too, it's in the same room. The 110 is empty and ready to go, can I just move substrate, rocks and filters (2 aquaclears) from the 55 to the 110 & move the fish? I would put water in the 110 with the same temp, ph, etc and use Prime on it first.

Would be ok to move everything over, versus just setting up the 110 and cycling it first? Wanted to get some other opinions, thanks.

 

[golcondorus]

I have done this before, as long as you move the fully seeded filters you should be fine. The gravel will help too. Dont clean the filters or anything just swap them over to the other one. You may have a small bacteria die off but as long as you monitor it for ammonia spikes and you have the same bioload that the filters are used to, i dont think you will have a problem. Its my favorite and fastest way to start a new aquarium, fully seeded and mature filters


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[rwellbaum]

yeah i agree^ you should be fine moving everything over to your new tank

Pics!!

 

[jadedreams]

Cool, thanks for the info. Not adding any new stock at the moment, just giving them more room. I will work on getting pics before and after the move.

 

[jadedreams]

Didn't get to move the fish until this weekend, but had no problems. Just lowered water in old tank and moved all decor over & some substrate over before moving fish. Moved filters straight over to new tank as well. Thought I had a couple missing fish, but they ending up hiding in a tree stump piece and actually got moved over when I switched it.

They all seem to be enjoying their new home and the extra room.

 

[frankyy]

Clean everything before you move it otherwise some bacteria will affect your new tank. Can you post some images of your new tank?

 

[Gill Blue]

Clean everything before you move it otherwise some bacteria will affect your new tank. Can you post some images of your new tank?

if your tank is healthy then there are no issues that I'm aware of and many benefits to transferring your bacteria, what affects are you worried about?

 

[MonsterMinis]

Looks nice, and I agree this is how i "upgrade" my tanks all the time. or if i'm upgradeing a filter ect... just run the older one along with the new one for a few weeks slwoly removeign teh bio-media from the old filter, the bacteria will "xfer" over to the new filter w/ minimla to no chemistry issues. but I def agree keep monitoring your system over the next few weeks.

 

[jadedreams]

Everything was moved over with no issues, pic above is of new tank. Old tank was healthy so I wanted to transfer over the good bacteria to the new one, fish are doing great but I will keep an eye on parameters to make sure everything is where it should be. Thanks everyone.

 

[Ash]

Glad it worked out, I do this all the time to jump start and use my new tanks when I get them and have not had any issues. Makes things a lot easier, I think!