moving discus

[Stuquarium]

hi guys,

my discus are all alive and well, and happy in my 4ft tank in the bed room. recently my main 4ft tank with hood, good lighting, ehiem cannister, top head filter has become availble.

it was a marine tank but sadly the fish living in it have passed on.
i want to put the discus in this main tank, so i get more viewing time, same size as the tank they are in

have any of you got any tips on how to move discus into a new home?
i can move the water from one tank to another easily the driftwood too, i'll get new gravel for the tank as i have to get rid of the live sand.

any ideas guys ? thanks

[Ben]

Hi Stu,

the best way to move them from tank to tank is to siphon some water into a bucket (around 1/4)
catch the discus, say 2 ault discus per bucket .
then slowly, over 20 minutes add water from their new home into the bucket till it is full.
Then gently net them out and put them into thier new tank. This is the best way and causes less stress,.

Cheers,
Ben

[Merrilyn]

Hi Stu, you'll need to cycle that new tank before you think about putting fish in there. Once you've got all the salt water stuff out, fill it with your new gravel and tap water. At this stage, don't add dechlorinator, because some of them remove ammonia from the water, and we need the ammonia to cycle the tank.

It's probably best to do a fishless cycle on the new tank. It will take about 10 days. Add some driftwood, or gravel or used filter media from your existing tank to seed the filter in the new tank. Feed it daily with pure ammonia, until you get a good reading of nitrate in the tank. Then do a water change with dechlorinated water, and add your fish, using the method Ben detailed above.

You'll find an article on fishless cycling a tank in the articles section of this forus.

[DR.V]

When adding fish to a new tank I always buy 1 cheap fish from LFS, (eg: neon tetra or something like that) and put them in the new tank.

If they survive after 1-2 days then I started adding more fish.

Just to be safe.

Good luck

[Stuquarium]

thanks guys, exactly what i needed.

i'll be tearing down and cleaning the tank this weekend, adding backing and gravel, and get the think cycling..

i usually use "cycle" with new tanks, think it's a good idea to continue with that?

[Ben]

Sorry Stu,
it was late when i put up my post. for some reason i was thinking you had the tank set up....

if possible add some gravel from your old tank into your new tank, and maybe some filter media aswell if possible. this will get the good bacteria a head start.

I am not sure about using cycle type products, as i have never used them......

But i like DR V idea after the tank is set up and ready to go put one or 2 tester fish to see if all is ok.

cheers,
Ben

[Stuquarium]

thanks ben

i dont really wanna move the old gravel, new will be ok, i can hook up my old cannister filter to the new tank, but then the discus waiting for the cycle will have no filtration, i have a spare internal filter i can use, but i wanna heavily plant the tank and the internal creates way to much current.

i can clean out the marine ehiem and use that too, but it's all guess work eh,

i'm not in any real hurry to get the tank and the discus moved, as i want to add rock, plants and the driftwood before i add the fish.

[Ben]

hi Stu,

keep us posted mate when you start and make the move!

cheers,
Ben

[DR.V]

Hi Stu, you use cycle products to boost the bacteria production so it will mature newly setup aquarium very quickly.

But since you're not in hurry theres no need to use such product.

Just be patient, just add plants, rocks , driftwood, and let it cycle properly.

Good luck