changing to larger tanks. help please!

[laur94x]

Hiya,
Basically I currently have a tropical tank and a cold water tank. I am currently doing a fishless cycle on a 140 litre new tank which I will be moving my tropicals in to when its finished. I am then going to move my cold water fish into the tank which the tropicals were in. I understand I need to cycle my tanks first but my question is.. Do I still need to do a fishless cycle on the tank which the coldwater fish are going into, if there was tropicals in it until just before the swap? Obviously I'd need to do a big water change etc and remove the heater but is there any way I can avoid waiting weeks for a cycle but keep my fish happy and healthy. I was planning on keeping the same filter in the tank but can transfer over the ornaments, plants and bubble wall. And could even put the cold waters current filter in the new tank with them for a bit too? I don't want to rish harming/killing them, just want to get them into the new bigger tank asap. Thanks x

 

[jlk]

Just make sure the temp (and parameters) in the present tropical tank is the same as your coldwater tank before moving your fish over. I would also add the filter from their tank. The tropical tank is already cycled but likely not to handle the bioload of the fish your adding so adding their present filter & monitoring your parameters closely for a bit will be important. Good luck!

 

[Andyskoi]

Not an expert on this but i would think that would be fine aslong as you get the temperature right and make sure none of the filters are left to dry out during the swop over as your good bacteria would die. Would also use both filters.Hope i have helped

 

[laur94x]

Thank you both. Yeah I was thinking put both filters in for a while, the coldwaters current one and leave the current tropical one in there for when the cold water move in there. So would you advise a full water change and stone clean? Or will that remove most of the good bacteria? Also what should the temperature be in the coldwater tank? Cos the thermometor in my cold water tank doesn't work so I'm not sure what it is x

 

[jlk]

Yes, you can do a big water change along with a gravel vac. Just keep the media! You want the new tanks temp to match the coldwater tanks temp so as not to shock your fish. General recommendations would be in the 70-74 range but it will be whatever your coldwater tank reads. If you dont have a thermometer, you can use your hand to temperature match but I would suggest picking up an inexpensive one (even dollar stores carry them).

 

[laur94x]

Okay thanks. I'm such an idiot, I could just take the one out of my tropical tank and use it to check the temperature of my cold water one haha, oops x