moved my fish

[racefiend]

hello everybody, on friday I moved everyone in my 50 gal discus tank into a 100 gal. The new tank came with a fluval 404. That's to small I found out the day of set up.I am running the hang on filter from the 50 gal with the 404 for now.So the next morning(after a night 'o fun getting the 404 running) I went to the LFS and bought a eheim plenty big enough for the kids. My question is how long do I let the tank set up before I switch filters?Tested the water and everything is same as usual.

[nicholas76]

You threw everyone ( i assume fish :lol: ) into a new tank? how many fish are we talking about??

Ideally you setup let it run , cycle then put your fish in.

Id leave your filtration new and old on this tank for a few weeks at a minimum and keep tabs on your water quality. Watch for an ammonia spike.

[racefiend]

sorry forgot to mention it is a new used tank and I also took all 50 gal of water, ornaments, wood, and gravel from the previous tank

[racefiend]

also for fish there are 6 discus and 3 red line barbs

[Merrilyn]

Your bacteria colony is mainly housed in the filter media from your old tank. If it was sufficient to take care of the waste products from your fish in the 50 gallon tank, then it will cope in the 100 gallon tank just the same.

If you want to change everything over to the new Eheim filter, and I would suggest that would be a wise move, then simple remove all the used filter media from your old filter, and without rinsing anything, put it all in the new eheim.

The size of the bacteria colonly is governed by the amount of available food (i.e. fish poop) in the water. Your 6 discus are still producing the same amount of waste as they did in the smaller tank.

If you add more fish, the bacteria colony will grow over a couple of weeks in direct proportion to the extra available food.

That's why we recommend that if you add new discus, only do it two at a time, and give your filter time to catch up before adding more. Smaller fish, like neons or other small tetras produce a very small amount of waste, so it's quite safe to add twenty or thirty at a time.

Bet your fish are loving their new spacious home :P

[racefiend]

thank you for the advise and yes everybody looks really happy with the extra room

[racefiend]

should I do a water change when I change filters or wait a few days after the switch?

[Merrilyn]

Waiting a few days for things to settle in would be good.

[racefiend]

great, thanks again