Help on upgrade 12 gallon tank to 20 gallon tank

Hey guys so recently the tank syndrome has gotten to me lol! Well now I'm addicted into buying a new tank! I was thinking of upgrading my 12 gallon tank to a 20 gallon. So my question is, when I upgrade my tank do I set it up as normal? The thing is that I don't have room to set up the 29 gallon so I was thinking of emptying the 12 gal and placing the fish in a 5 gal bucket. My 12 gal has an internal filter so when I set it up should I just take the filter media and place it in the new tank and let it run for 1-2 hours? I won't upgrade until a month or so so any advice would be great thanks!

 

Put the filter media in the new tank with some extra media to fill the cartridge. With more water volume you'll need about a week for the bacteria to reach levels able to convert ammo to nitrate quickly.

You can add your fish right away, but dose with seachem prime daily for a week or two. By then the bacteria will be caught up.

 

Put the filter media in the new tank with some extra media to fill the cartridge. With more water volume you'll need about a week for the bacteria to reach levels able to convert ammo to nitrate quickly.

You can add your fish right away, but dose with seachem prime daily for a week or two. By then the bacteria will be caught up.

Ok thanks! Do I need to do the frequent water changes as well or just do a pwc twice or once a week and dose prime? Or do I just add 2 cap fulls, because I plan on getting a 20 long? Thanks!

 

I'd wait a full week before doing a water change.

 

I'd wait a full week before doing a water change.

Ok thank you so do you advise me to just dose prime daily then once a week passes I should do a pwc?

 

Correct.

 

Correct.

Ok thank you! Also I have one last question, in my 12 gallon I have a Bolivian ram in the tank and 2 guppies do you think the ram would do alright in the change, like do I have to bring the ph down for him because my tap ph is different from my tanks's ph because there is a lot of drift wood in it. Should I just add more drift wood to the new tank to bring the ph down or should I just buy some ph buffers? Thank you so much for the help!

 

Use the old tank water to fill half of the new tank and use tap water to fill it completely. That way your PH will be in the middle of your tank and tap, much easier on the ram.

That being said, guppys and rams are not good fish to be keeping together.

 

Use the old tank water to fill half of the new tank and use tap water to fill it completely. That way your PH will be in the middle of your tank and tap, much easier on the ram.

That being said, guppys and rams are not good fish to be keeping together.

Oh ok I see thank you I'll probably replace the guppies with another type of fish then do you have any suggestions by any chance? I pretty much received the guppies during my tank cycle which was about 2 years ago. Thank you so much!

 

What I do for my gold ram is use peat moss, softens the water and lowers ph like magic. just rinse it really well before you use it. If you can get your PH to 7 your ram and guppy will be fine together.

 

What I do for my gold ram is use peat moss, softens the water and lowers ph like magic. just rinse it really well before you use it. If you can get your PH to 7 your ram and guppy will be fine together.

Ok thank you so much! I get some peat moss for the tank! Do I just place that in my filter or on the substrate?

 

Personally in my ram tank, I have my main filter with SeaChem Purigen as my media, and I have a minI filter that just has peat granules in a mesh bag. However, you can simply add it in a mesh bag to your filter or even let it hang from the top in the water. Don't forget to rinse it well and put it in a mesh bag, otherwise it can make your water brown.

 

Personally in my ram tank, I have my main filter with SeaChem Purigen as my media, and I have a minI filter that just has peat granules in a mesh bag. However, you can simply add it in a mesh bag to your filter or even let it hang from the top in the water. Don't forget to rinse it well and put it in a mesh bag, otherwise it can make your water brown.

Ok thanks I'll probably get 2 HOB filters a small one for the peat moss and a larger one for filtering the water. Thank you so much!