need info about tank upsize

[cakelady204]

I have a 10 gallon tank with 2 balloon belly mollies, 14 balloon belly fry (about 2 weeks old) 4 neon tetras and one small algae eater. It took me a while to get the hang of my ten gallon tank and I lost a lot of fish in the beginning. I have successfully maintained my tank now for two years with no big problems. I upsized to a 55 gallon tank that has been setup and running for three days now. When can I transfer my fish to the bigger tank? What kind of things do I have to check to make sure it is safe to move them to the bigger tank? I want to do things right this time and would appreciate any helpful hints. Thanks.

 

[OCCFan023]

Well I would reccomend picking up a freshwater master test kit (ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte, and pH). I dont know if your familiar with fishless cycling threads but if you search around the freshwater begginer thread you can find one that describes it. When your readings are all right you can move your fish over. You can speed up the trial by placing rocks, filter media from the 10 gallon into the 55 to jump start the cycling. You could also do a fish cycling process but I would reccomend doing a fishless cycle, and with the established items you can put in it form your 10, it shouldnt take too long.

 

[FroggyFox]

Yeah...it should take a couple of weeks to do a fishless cycle on your new tank. Like OCC said, grab an ammonia test kit, nitrite test kit and nitrate test kit if you dont already have them...and do some research on cycling.

You can start by checking out these threads: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19357

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

Also, apart from the water chemistry and cycling, since you did say that you want to do things right, it might be a good idea to look into what fish you want in there and make sure there are no incompatibility issues with your choices. You should probably keep the 10gallon as a quarantine tank after you've moved the fish over to the 55. A quarantine tank will prevent a lot of diseases and illnesses from entering you main tank from sick fish we all sometimes buy at LFSs.