Moving from a 20-gallon tank to a 55-gallon tank - Cycling?

[rmarrandino1]

Hi,

A little over a year ago I screwed up the startup on my son's first tank, received a lot of great advice from the members here, and finally had to use Bio-Spira to get up and running.

Now, we will be moving from a 20-gallon tank to a 55-gallon tank. I'm hoping I could get confirmation or advice on moving tanks.

Based on what I've read here in the past I thinking that I should be able to move all of the gravel, plastic plants, caves, fish, and filter to the new tank to greatly reduce cycle time.

Once the tank cycles I can start slowly adding more fish, which should cause mini-cycles, until I have fully stocked the tank. I know I could just use Bio-Spira again and fully stock the tank, but I probably want to do some more research on what to stock the tank with.

Is this thinking correct? Did I miss something? Should I be doing something totally different?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Seleya]

Moving your stuff over should really work well with maybe a small minicycle if anything at all. My own advice would be to switch everything you plan to reuse over, being sure to do it in as small a time frame as possible (a few hours would be ideal) and to be sure to use dechlor before adding any additional water. Even if you plan to use another filter on the 55, move the 20's filter over for at least a month (provided you're not going to use the 20 at all for the near future). Test very regularly for the next couple of weeks and don't add any more fish until the tank has been stable for at least a couple of weeks. Instead of Biospira, you may want to use Stability (by Seachem) to help the bacteria, but you really shouldn't need anything at all.

What is in the tank now and what do you hope to eventually add?

 

[rmarrandino1]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Right now we have just the basics....Tetras, Guppies, Mollies, Danios, and Corys.

Not sure what else we're going to do. We most likely would like some larger fish, so I probably spend a lot of time researching prior posts on what fish go well together. If I find that the fish we want and the current fish aren't recommended together I might even keep the 20 gallon as is and start over with the 55.

Thanks again.

 

[FroggyFox]

I definitely agree with Seleya...as long as you dont add any fish and use all of your existing tank equipment you can change to a new tank immediately without a cycle. (noting like she said that you HAVE to dechlor any new water before adding to the tank, dont rinse anything off or "clean" anything with straight tap water) I'd let the tank settle down for a week or two before adding any new fish anyway just to be safe.

If you're going to get a new filter completely then I think maybe it'd be wise to leave the 20G filter on the 55, start up the new filter and keep them both running for a month or so. If its the same type of filter and you can reuse the media from the 20G filter then you may not need to worry about leaving them both running for long.

 

[echoofformless]

I easily moved from a ten to a twenty gallon a little over a month ago without the slightest issue. Luckily I was using the same filters (Fluval 104 and Penguin 125) so there really was no immediate risk of any bio crashing or minicycling.

I'll tell you what I did so you can reference it if needed:


I took some buckets, filled them with tank water and designated them for fish, plants, driftwood and rocks. I kept all the stuff submerged to preserve the bacteria. I left the original substrate in an inch or so of water.

I put the new substrate into the twenty gallon, and added some tank water. Then I transfered the rest of the original substrate in and mixed them together.

Added the plants.

Started filling up the new water and the old water together, until I had a good few inches whereupon I added the driftwood and rocks. Once I finished adding the rest of the water save for the bucket with the fish, I installed all filtration and the heater. (Total time wasn't more than an hour altogether.)

Once the temp regulated I added the fish and all has been well ever since. No mini-cycling or fish stress in the least. I think of it as nothing more than a large water change really.

 

[rmarrandino1]

Thanks for the step-by-step....I'm sure that will help me tremendously.