upgrading tank 40 to 55

blwoodson

In a nutshell, what is the easiest way to upgrade an existing tank while keeping impact to specimens to a minimum?

here is what i was thinking:

1. Transfer existing water and fish to a spare 20 gal tank with heater and airstones
2. water to clean aquarium buckets
3. setup new tank - transfer substrate to keep as much bio filtering as i can
4. re-add water and fish
5. treat and add the additional 15 gallons

I will have everything ready to work with before starting to minimize murphy's law

Does this sound like a decent plan?

Thank you in advance

1077

Sounds like a plant to me.
Might run the filter on the 20 gal holding fish while you set up the new tank, and would for sure use enough dechlorinator to treat the whole tank when I placed the fish in the new tank and topped off with tapwater.
Sometimes, stirring up old substrate can release ammonia and by treating the whole tank ,rather than just adding enough dechlorinator for the new water (15 gal in your case) can help prevent any spike in ammonia.

Geomancer

I'm not sure why you would want to keep the old water? There is no beneficial bacteria in the water itself. Just organics and nitrates, neither of which you want.

Unless your existing tanks nitrates are high, your existing tanks pH and tap water pH are dissimilar, or some other water quality difference I wouldn't use much of your old tank water in the new tank.

Keep the old filter running on the 20 gallon as mentioned to keep that bacteria alive during the process.

And yes, stirring up the substrate can kick up all kinds of stuff, so monitor your water quality afterwards and be prepared to do some frequent water changes (once a day) if necessary.

Termato

To be honest with you I think the best way for you to do this is to Set up the new tank first before removing anything from the old tank.

Put the substrate in the new tank (honestly I can't believe I have 4 gravel tanks....I wish i had done them sand) You can take the substrate from the 40 or put new in. Using the entirety of the substrate from the 40 is not necessary, you only need a decent amount to seed and the filter will do that too. Put the water in. Put some old gravel from establish tank, ornaments, plants and all that good stuff. All of this will have bacteria. Take your filter and put it in the new tank.

If I were you I'd get entirely new substrate but that is just me and because I want sand so bad now lol. Always something to thing about when setting up new tanks.

Then if you have plants that will be best.

Once you have everything set up you can just put the fish in. That way you don't even have to take apart the 40 gallon! :)

Just another suggestion. Good luck! Jealous of your new tank. I wish I had a 55!

AbbeysDad

I think your plan is fine. I would just take advantage of the opportunity to thoroughly clean the substrate (if you can) and do a 50% water change (no more). Of course, be sure and condition any new water as required making sure it's the correct temperature or only slightly cooler.
(Note: I would add the old water and the fish, then gradually add the new water [just like a water change] just in case there's some chemistry difference).

1077

+one.

blwoodson

Thank you all for responding. The only issue i have about setting new tank up first is the fact the new tank is going to go where the old tank is currently.
I do have some plants in aquarium which will be transferred as well (safely, I hope).

Will do my best to clean substrate and monitor water afterwards.

Once again, thank you, everyone

blwoodson

Its amazing how something that seems like so much work can be soo darn fun! Ive been thoroughly infected with the fishkeeping bug again!

AbbeysDad

There is no known cure