Going from 10 to 55 gallon

Have had 10 gallon going for about 4 months, and am getting new 55 gallon going. I have 1 male betta, 2 rosy tetra, 2 plati, and 1 guppy running on whisper 10 filter that has been working surprisingly well. Will be running to aquaclear 60 hob's on 55 gallon when completely cycled. Here's my plan on tne transition. running the whisper 10 and from cycled 10 gallon, and 1 aquaclear 60 on the 55 gallon, along with large piece fake driftwood and all other decorations, fake plants etc from established 10 gallon. what I would like to do immediately is add the stock I have in 10 gallon along with bottle of 75 gallon tetra safe start to the 55 gallon as I don't have enough room to run both tanks. I had success with tss in 10 gallon, what do you guys think, good or bad idea?..?

 

Should work fine. I would even try it with just the old filter and media running on the 55 gal. The bio load will be the same, as long as you don't add additional stock immediately. Plus the vastly larger tank will become toxic MUCH slower than a smaller tank would. Just monitor the water parameters closely.

If, on the other hand, you cannot resist adding additional stock immediately, I guess the TSS would be the way to go, without testing as I understand it.

 

Should work fine. I would even try it with just the old filter and media running on the 55 gal. The bio load will be the same, as long as you don't add additional stock immediately. Plus the vastly larger tank will become toxic MUCH slower than a smaller tank would. Just monitor the water parameters closely.

If, on the other hand, you cannot resist adding additional stock immediately, I guess the TSS would be the way to go, without testing as I understand it.

So run the whisper 10 by itself or along side the aqua clear ?

 

Run them both and add stock slowly I think u should be fine. If I'm wrong someone will corect me.

Edit put all your current fish in right away add more slowly

 

Actually now thinking of just running one aqua clear 110, one less thing to plug in, that shouldn't make a difference correct??

 

Whatever you decide for the new filter would be fine. Just make sure you use the old filter as well, probably for at least a month, two months would be better. Any time you make major filtering changes, test the water for a week or two on a regular basis to make sure it all settles in the way you expect it to.

 

Whatever you decide for the new filter would be fine. Just make sure you use the old filter as well, probably for at least a month, two months would be better. Any time you make major filtering changes, test the water for a week or two on a regular basis to make sure it all settles in the way you expect it to.

If I go with just the aqua clear 110 instead of 2 smaller aquaclear do you think it would be OK to just take the bio bag and foam sponge from the whisper 10 and place it in the aqua clear instead of running the whisper ten on the tank also?? From what I understand there is a lot of room in the 110 for media, and the whisper ten media isn't all that big..

 

That will also work, but SLIGHTLY less beneficial bacteria will be transferred. The entire filter, housing, impeller, outflow all have a lot of BB living on their surfaces. By far, the most is in the sponges and biomax though.

Probably best to place the old filter media at the bottom of the new filter, the new media on top. That way the water flow will flush some of the BB into the new media as it runs.

Make sure you don't start adding additional bio-load until the new filter is on it's way to becoming colonized, then add critters slowly.

 

That will also work, but SLIGHTLY less beneficial bacteria will be transferred. The entire filter, housing, impeller, outflow all have a lot of BB living on their surfaces. By far, the most is in the sponges and biomax though.

Probably best to place the old filter media at the bottom of the new filter, the new media on top. That way the water flow will flush some of the BB into the new media as it runs.

Make sure you don't start adding additional bio-load until the new filter is on it's way to becoming colonized, then add critters slowly.

Was also thinking of hanging a bag of the gravel from 10 gallon in the new tank, as well as the water from 10 gallon will that be beneficial or a waste of time?

 

Any gravel or decorations you add from the established tank will help. Not so much the water. Very few bacteria live, free floating in the water. Won't hurt, but probably not worth the effort.

Some folks on here will claim that you risk spreading disease by transferring water, but think it's good to transfer the filter media. If you think about it, this position doesn't make sense logically. Any disease present in the water will also be present in the filter media. Probably will be in higher concentration in the filter media.

I would just prefer to start out with fresh water, without the nitrates that will inevitably be in the used tank water. As I said, though, it probably wouldn't make any real difference.

 

Well I got the 55 gallon finally set up. Have 2 aqua clear 70's running. Took bio bag from ten gallon and put in one filter and the sponge from ten gallon and put in other filter. Took all decorations that I had in 10 gallon along with 4 media bags filled with gravel from 10 gallon and put in 55. How long should I keep the gravel and media in the new tank? Have 1 betta,2 platys, 2 rosy tetra that I also moved into 55 gallon with all of the above material.

Should I run both filters at full power all the time?

 

Your tank looks great. I would keep inas long as a month or until you know for sure the tank is completely cycled.

 

Yeah, I would keep everything in for at least 6 or 8 weeks to be sure. You made a BIG step up in volume, so give the little bacteria time to re-establish and move to their new media. Also, add critters slowly, while doing frequent testing of parameters. Things don't always go the way we expect them to, and it's best to catch it early with frequent testing than it is to find out too late.

Keep in mind, also, that the larger volume will take longer to get polluted, so don't jump the gun, thinking everything is cycled. Slow and steady will work best.

New tank looks great.

 

Nice upgrade looks good.

 

I just skimmed some responses so pardon me if this has already been stated.

Since you're not changing the stocking of the larger aquarium - just moving the current fish over to the larger one - you won't need to use anything to cycle the larger tank. Just move over the current 10 gal filtration you have to the large aquarium, add on the new larger filters and run them at the same time. After about 2-3 weeks you can start adding more fish.

Good luck!

 

Should the filters always be running at full flow rate/power?

 

Oh! You could even run both aquaclears on the larger tank, split up the media that's in the 10 gallon filter and add half to one aquaclear, and half to the other, along with the aquaclear media. This will seed both aquaclears similtaneously and you won't have to use the whisper 10 at all.

Sorry, I didn't even think of that. But that's the easiest way.

 

Concerning the flow rate, if your fish & plants can handle it (some don't like lots of flow) than certainly run them at the full rate. Most of the time this is the case, and you shouldn't have a problem.

Just beware that if you have very small fish (my apologies, I didn't recheck your stock) you might want to cover the intake of the filters with a sponge or fine netting of some kind. This helps keep the fish from being sucked up inside.

 

Well its been since sat when I did the transfer. Tested water today with apI kit and have
0-ammonia
0-nitrite
0 nitrate

Was running zeros and 20 ppm on nitrate in 10 gallon. Should I be concerned???

 

Well its been since sat when I did the transfer. Tested water today with apI kit and have
0-ammonia
0-nitrite
0 nitrate

Was running zeros and 20 ppm on nitrate in 10 gallon. Should I be concerned???

You've got a much larger tank. The nitrates are diluted. They'll show back up in a few days... unless you've added more stock your bioload is significantly less as well...

and just to be sure.. you did shake the bottle right? lol

 

You've got a much larger tank. The nitrates are diluted. They'll show back up in a few days... unless you've added more stock your bioload is significantly less as well...

and just to be sure.. you did shake the bottle right? lol

Haven't added any more stock and I shook the out of bottle

 

Well I'm into day 6 of starting tank with all transferred media and fish still..

Ammonia-0
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-0
Ph-8.2 Ish

Should I wait on nitrates or add a few more fish, or bottled bacteria????

 

If you have live plants you probably won't see nitrates with only a few small fish in a 55.

 

If you have live plants you probably won't see nitrates with only a few small fish in a 55.

No live plants

 

No live plants

Just wait another week.

 

Just wait another week.

So no PWC either as long as the parameters stay good?

 

Still reading 0's across the board. Should I hold off on partial water change???

 

Should the filters always be running at full flow rate/power?

Can your Betta tolerate full flow? Is there a reason you are not keeping him(?) in 10G since you already have the filter and heater for it?

Hold your horses.

On 4/29 I had two fully cycled tanks, a 10G and a 5 G. I moved gravel, plants and filters to 20G long and 29g, added new filters, substrate, driftwood and TSS.( turned 5 G into QT). Today, 5/11/13 I got 0-0-10 in all three. Your tanks are larger, so you get to wait longer.

 

Can your Betta tolerate full flow? Is there a reason you are not keeping him(?) in 10G since you already have the filter and heater for it?

Hold your horses.

On 4/29 I had two fully cycled tanks, a 10G and a 5 G. I moved gravel, plants and filters to 20G long and 29g, added new filters, substrate, driftwood and TSS.( turned 5 G into QT). Today, 5/11/13 I got 0-0-10 in all three. Your tanks are larger, so you get to wait longer.

I didn't use any TSS though...

 

Starting to get foam build up on top of water.....??? Any ideas of the cause?

 

Orion5, That is great advise.
I am also moving up except I don't have room for my HOB filter with bio wheels on the new tank so I am transferring all the media I can and decor etc. Does this mean if you can't transfer the old filter you should wait longer even if your transferring seeded media?

 

Figured I'd post my results after 11 days

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0

Should I still be waiting for the nitrates as they still maybe so called "diluted" or should I be worried? Sorry for being a pain just thought I would see a change by now, any help would be appreciated!!

 

0,0,0 would be ideal but is almost impossible to achieve, so it sounds like your water is fine. You should start seeing nitrates soon though.

 

Starting to get foam build up on top of water.....??? Any ideas of the cause?

Phosphates

 

Starting to get foam build up on top of water.....??? Any ideas of the cause?

Phosphates

Or could your betta be building a bubble nest?

 

Or could your betta be building a bubble nest?

I think your right, never even thought of bubble nest! That would explain why its only on one side of tank and I have noticed the betta has gone from typical mellow to a little aggressive on that end of the tank!! How long will he produce the bubble nest for?

 

Day 16

Added 3 more platys 3 days ago

Still reading

0-ammonia
0-nitrite
0-nitrate

Seems weird to me no nitrates yet...?

 

If you are using the API liquid test kit, make sure you are shaking and pounding reagent bottle #2 really, really well. If not shaken well enough you will get bad results. Other than that, don't worry, as I mentioned previously 0,0,0 is ideal!

 

OK 1 month into it and still "0"s across the board. Went to buy 4 alinbo corys to start for adding stock slowly. Got home and my sister had added 4 guppies that she has had since fry.... question is that would the 4 albinos and the 4 guppies to be to much to add today?

 

OK 1 month into it and still "0"s across the board. Went to buy 4 alinbo corys to start for adding stock slowly. Got home and my sister had added 4 guppies that she has had since fry.... question is that would the 4 albinos and the 4 guppies to be to much to add today?

I'd do it.