Upgrading tanks 30 to 55 or 75?

[jeffs10]

I will be upgrading my 30 gallon community tank very soon. Whats the best way to do this.

1. fill 55 and cycle tank and add fish slowly until all fish are in new established thank?

or

2. Use all the same decorations substrate 100 of the water filter and heater and just transfer to new tank then add 20+ fresh room temp water?

What has everyone done in the past the problem is the 55 has to go right where the 30 gallon is so if i can transfer it would be better for me.

And can anyone recomend a good filter for a 55 fresh water tank?

 

[marcus russo]

EHEIMS are my fav filters

as for transfering i suggest keeping as much of the water as you can in a bucket or something with your fish
Drain the main tank put the new tank most of the way up.
Fill with old substrate and new water
Get temp about the same
Make sure ph is the same
Drip water from new tank to the bucket with the fish slowly to acclimate them.
Put all of this water back into your tank

http://www.fish-forums.com Photo contest coming

 

[poppab02]

I did the same exact thing you did except it was a cichlid tank instead of a community tank. Here's all that I did:

Went out and bought two 20 gallon plastic tubs

I filled the first tub with the cleaner water off of the top of the tank and transferred the fish into that tub

I transferred the gravel, decorations, and the rest of the water into the other tub and moved my 29 g and stand out of the way

I set up the 55 g and dumped the gravel, decorations, and water in the second tub in and then added the extra substrate and decorations and I think I added about 5-10 gallons of new water

Then I transferred the other tubs contents again using a gravel vac for the water and netting the fish---this was the most stressful part for the fish

Then I added about another 10 gallons of new water and floated the old filter in the tank--didn't fill the 55 gallon completely, I left about 5 gallons to add the next day

The only reason I would worry about dripping the new water with the old water is if your tap ph or temp is wildly different from what you tank ph and temp are---for example if your tap water is 55 degrees or your ph is 8 and you want it to be at 7---otherwise you should be fine not dripping.

I did it by myself in about an hour and it was only slightly more stressful on the fish than a 50% water change(in reality besides netting the fish that's all you're really doing to them), I lost 0 fish and had no water quality issues

 

[poppab02]

Sorry, forgot about the filter question

If you have the money for a cannister, then get one, you can always use it if you upgrade to a bigger tank and they are easier to maintain by most accounts

If you don't have the money, I think then get a Penguin 330 biowheel, It's a good filter.

 

[TankGirl]

A Penguin 330 is a great filter, but not adequate for a 55. I have run an Eheim 2215 (classic "old school") plus a 330 on a 55, and I recently moved my 2215 to my 44gal (running that plus an Emperor 400 - I like to overfiltrate for Africans) and have a Filstar XP3 on my 55 at the moment. I adore this filter, and it is more than adequate to handle the 55, or even a 75 by itself. It is usually very inexpensive as large canisters go, especially at bigalsonline.com.

If you can afford it, get an Eheim. This is a filter you will have for years and years, and they are proven to be excellent filters with a long life, which is a good value when you consider how often you might have to replace an inferior filter over the years.

BTW, I agree with the above posts about transferring the tank - use all of the biomedia you can and you should be in good shape.

Quite a sig you've got there, Marcus!

 

[BASSNMAN]

tank change over

I just went through the same thing, changing out a 50 for a 125. If you have not purchased the tank yet, go ahead and buy the filter. I have been running 330 biowheels on my 3 50 gals with excellent result. I put 2 330s on the 125. Place the new filter on your present tank till the move.
For the change, I siphoned 20 gallons into a clean container and transfered the fish. I removed the balance of the water and moved the 50 and stand. Placed the 125 and stand, leveled!. I am using new substrate that was then added. I added dechlor and filled the tank 2/3 full of new water. I used a clean stock pot that is used only for the aquariums and heated treated water to bring the tank up to normal temp(78 f). I siphoned most of the water out of the fish container and put it in the new tank. I then slowly submerged the container, freeing the fish. Fired up the filters and heaters. I placed a 1 gal tub of the old gravel into the tank. The container is still sitting there. I did the change over 2 weeks ago and have not had any ammonia or nitrites so far. GOOD LUCK.

 

[jeffs10]

thanks for all the great help I let everyone know how it turns out.

 

[chasgood]

Using the gravel and other stuff from the 30 will make for a short cycle. Maybe it wont need to cycle at all. Thats what happened with my 20.

 

[Guest]

Personally I'm not a big fan of 55's. They just are'nt wide enough. Then again, I enjoy planted tanks, so the wider tanks are easier to plant and create depth.

I vote for a 75. Bigger is always better. Unless of course, it wo'nt fit in the space you have selected to set it up. That could be a problem.

Canisters are great on bigger tanks. Check out Ehiem and Rena. Or you could build a DIY wet/dry for half the price, have far more filtering/bioload capacity and use the money you saved on other equipment.
JMO