New tank ( the easy way)?

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neesejohn

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 21, 2009
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Princeton, WV
www.cichlid.org
Okay, so I'm going to ask a question and I'm pretty sure I know the answers I'll recieve:

I have a 54 gallon corner aquarium. I have a Jack Dempsey and a Green Terror in it. So here's the deal: the tank came with a whole mess of fish! It came with the Dempsey, the Terror, and 4 convict cichlids. To top it off there's a pleco and 2 spotted Raphaels in it. Now I know that this tank is insanely overstocked, but the fish were in it when the tank was given to me, and I just haven't had the heart to thin out the stock yet.

So anyway, last weekend, my wife bought me a 75. To top it off, when I came home, she had bought me a 4 inch Flowerhorn, which I had to place in the 54!!! OMG!!! Anyway, I sat it up today, got the water to the right parameters and temperature, and dechlorinated with Seachem Prime and yada yada yada...

What I want to know is, can I move the tank inhabitants, filters and all to the new tank tonight? I'm out of town a lot and would like to go ahead and do it before next weekend. Or am I risking killing the new tank dead in the water by flooding it with life too fast? Can I at least move over a few fish tonight? And a filter? I just want to get something done! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!:nilly: Thanks
 
You should be good to move them all if you move all the old filters and substrate. Thats where all the good bacteria is at. If you added a new filter along with the old there might be a mini cycle. Could try some of Seachem Stability to make sure it stays good.
 
Well, you COULD put the convicts in the 75 and use them to cycle it, they're cheap and they reproduce like mollies. Transfer some of the cycled substrate to the 75, wont instantly cycle it, but it helps (assuming you don't move over all of the substrate). Old filter media used on the 75 filter will help to. All these things will help, but won't instantly cycle your tank, its still a relatively long process.

Overloading the 75 with all those fish, all at once, is probably a bad idea. It may not kill them, but it will at least weaken them, possibly stunt them, you get the idea.
 
The Seachem Stablility is awesome. I have used it a few times and it has flawlessly. If you look in the setup forums u can get other peoples comments.
 
JTRG05;3485486; said:
Well, you COULD put the convicts in the 75 and use them to cycle it, they're cheap and they reproduce like mollies. Transfer some of the cycled substrate to the 75, wont instantly cycle it, but it helps (assuming you don't move over all of the substrate). Old filter media used on the 75 filter will help to. All these things will help, but won't instantly cycle your tank, its still a relatively long process.

Overloading the 75 with all those fish, all at once, is probably a bad idea. It may not kill them, but it will at least weaken them, possibly stunt them, you get the idea.
Click to expand...

:iagree:
 
Hate to sound dumb, but I set the new tank up with a differnt kind of sunstrate, so at most, I can transfer the rocks, the water, and the filters.

Also, I don't consider the convicts expendable. They are the cheapest ones in the tank, but I've grown rather attached to them, as the my females have amazing colors. One has a sort of whitish belly, and this brilliant blue spangling in the fins. The other of the kongo variety and speaks for herself.

I'm getting different opinions, which I like. The majority seems to say to transfer the water and the filters, but a lot of people on MFK are saying substrate as well.

The only fish that I would consider to be possibly expendable is the green terror. He has always been shy and hides most of the time. Bur I'm hoping that if I an add him first, he'll ecome a little more showy.

Any siggestions on that would be reat as well.

Thanks so much.
 
fast and easy fix take the sponges from your existing tanks and squeeze them into the filter on the newly set up tank almost instant cycle there in my opinion, run it for a few hours and then do a wc and you should be good to go

i recently solidified the deal on a fish hatchery and as part of the deal I took the rest of the dudes breeding stock so he could shut down the system and not have to heat his hatchery over the winter. I pick up the set up in the spring time over 100 40g-20g tanks etc....

well the dilemma was what to do with the 37 full grown angels I had set up a 230g just a few days prior and it was the only place to put them so i got stability and did the filter squeeze, other than 5 lost fish from the transfer i have lost none to the tank.

mind you i have done 6 waterchanges in 7 days of 50%/ to make sure that the tank did not poison them but you should be good to go if you transfer some of them to the new tank
'
good luck with the flowerhorn though
 
When I moved my fish from a 40 breeder to the new tank, I moved the substrate filters and everything in the old tank to the new. The only thing I didn't move was any of the water, except that which was in my canister filters. I never seen any spikes in any of the tests.
 
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