Moving Everything To A Brand New Tank..best Way To Keep Beneficial Bacteria Stable?

HI everyone,nice to meet everybody.I just joined the forum.Trying to find out the best way to transfer everything to a new tank.Well as I'm ready to go to sleep few weeks ago,I start hearing water flushing the sound was the water level getting lower on my 60 gal tank ,the powerheads where above the water line so it starts making a loud flushing sound as the water level gets lower,half asleep looking as to what's going on.To my shock the tank sprung a leak!and was leaking on the floor! The tank has been running for 20 years and always thought about how long the silicone would last.I ran to get some tape to tape the leaking area,still leaking but not as much I got rushed and went to a big pet store I happen to live close to,Got a 20 gal tank to put all the fish in temporarily,siphoned the water to the 20 gal tank,put some gravel in it,some deco,also and unhooked my established filter (fuval 303) and ran it on the 20 gal tank.

The fish seem perfectly fine,Well now I finally got my new 60 gal tank,thought about resealing it,but I don't trust it leaking again.(the glass doesn't seem as thick as the older one I guess that's how they make them now) now I'm ready to set it all up again.
The question I have is,If I still have the established filter that's still running on the 20 gal,can I just full the new tank with water and some conditioner and hook up the filter and I'm good to go? Because this is what I pretty much did when I got the temporary 20 gal and it seemed fine .Should I let it run a while then add the fish?or would it be ok just to add them all at once,while the filter is running? I just don't want to start a new cycle with the fish in it. Thank you for any advice.

 

Personally, I would use as much of the water from the 20 as possible without carrying debris over. Then just fill the rest up with dechlorinated water, and move everything over. Of course, as always with moving a filter, keep a close eye on your parameters for a few days. It may do a minI cycle, but they're much more easily dealt with than trying to establish a whole new cycle.

 

well said jleem I agree with u cheers john

 

Thank you for the info,yes I'm going to use as much water from the 20 gal as I can.As far as adding the fish though do you think it would be ok to add them right after I fill the tank up or should I wait a few days

 

I'd say move them over right away. Not much different than doing a large water change (assuming you are using the same substrate, filter, etc).

 

Plus, you need an ammonia source for your cycle you're trying to move over and beef back up.

 

yea that's what's I thought just move over everything at once and the fish in the tank will create the ammonia for the cycle,instead of just leaving it run with no fish for a while.