Tank Upgrade Question

[ChrisS71]

I had a 20 gallon that I had in a bad location and overfed. I lost a few of the fish before I started getting it under control. At this point I decided to move the fish into a bigger tank in a better location.

I bought a 75 gallon tank and set it up last Sunday evening. I added Stability and Prime at this point. I then let it run for a few days to get up to temperature and added Stability each day. On Wednesday I cut a chunk out of the sponge on an Aquaclear 110 and inserted the entire sponge from the Aquaclear 20 that had been on the smaller tank into the hole that I had made along with all of the Biomax from the 20. I also spread quite a bit of the gravel from the 20 into the 75 and used a couple of caves that had been in there for months. I then took a Tetra HOB filter(I think it's a 50) from a cycled 55 gallon and put it on the 75. After getting all of this in place I moved my fish 4 Cardinal Tetras,2 Zebra Danios,1 Cherry Barb and a small Black Kuhli Loach.

My question is,my ammonia is staying between 0 and .25,my nitrites at 0 and my nitrates at 0,is this normal? I thought with the seeding material I would start to see a few nitrates and my ammonia would be 0.

Thanks in advance!

 

[librarygirl]

How long did the seeded media sit in the tank without an ammonia source? Without ammonia, the bacteria will die. If you're just upgrading the tank you could just move over the filter media from the 20 gal into the new filter and then fill the rest with new media and move the fish over, it would be instantly cycled that way. Tank moves can cause a mini cycle, though, particularly if the seeded media you used didn't hold enough bacteria to sustain your current stock. It should level out pretty quickly though, just do some extra water changes as needed until things level off.

 

[ChrisS71]

The filter sponge from the Aquaclear 20was in the 110 for 2-3 hours and the gravel that I transferred was just a few minutes before I moved the fish. The Tetra filter was on the tank for 2 days before the fish.I did drop in a couple of flakes of food both days though.

 

[librarygirl]

Oh, 2 days isn't long enough to seed a filter; 3-4 weeks is more like it. Just keep testing the tank and do water changes as needed, there's no tellling how long the cycle will take; it'll depend on how much bacteria made it over. Good luck!

 

[ChrisS71]

I think you're misunderstanding me. The Tetra filter had been on a cycled aquarium for months and was on the new aquarium for about two days. The Aquaclear 20 had been on the 20 gallon tank since January and the sponge and Biomax had only been rinsed in tank water since I've had it. They were only on the new tank in the bigger filter for a couple of hours before the fish were moved. After I got the fish out of the 20 but before putting them into the 75 I moved about half of the gravel from the 20 which was in there for a couple of minutes before the fish. I hope that is more clear.

 

[mohican]

I think your ok. Every tank is different but when I moved my seeded filters from one tank to the next, my fish did ok. Just keep an eye on them and just wait it out; give it time to mature.

 

[ChrisS71]

Thanks for your help.