Upgrading a Tank
 

After some minor troubles with our tank (high nitrates & phosphates, algae bloom, long time to cycle), as well as wanting to get a larger tank, we have taken the plunge & purchased a new larger tank to arrive on the weekend.

We are upgrading from a 45L (12gal) tank to approximately 150L (40gal) tank. We currently have a cycled canister filter on the 45L tank, and the new tank has a wet/dry (trickle) filter built into the hood.

So my question is, what is the preferred (best practice) option:

• Moving the cycled canister filter over & only using it?
• Running both filters (canister & wet/dry trickle filter) continuously forever?
• Run both filters (canister & wet/dry trickle filter) together, and remove the canister filter when the wet/dry trickle filter is cycled?

Would go with third option were it me, and remove the canister after a couple week's.
If this creates too much flow ,,you could take half the media from the canister, and stuff it in the wet dry along with new media, and remove the borrowed media after a couple week's(14 day's/night's).
By only taking half the media from the canister,,you could leave the smaller tank to run for grow out tank for fry ,or quarantine tank.
It is smaller tank so maint would not be too much in my view to maintain both if room permit's.
Quarantine tank's can save you considerable $$$ spent on medicating /replacing fishes.

I don't think too much flow will be an issue, I sense there is too much flow in the smaller tank at the moment.

I did think about using the smaller tank as a quarantined tank, but really don't have a lot of room. Plus how would you go trying to keep it cycled if there was no bacterial load?