Can someone give me a guide on fish upgrading?

Question

i have a 10 and im going to a 20-29g tank and what percautions should i take wile cycling my tank?(what should i do?)

Answer 1

Are you going to be moving all your fish to the new tank? If your current tank is already cycled, you can just move everything into the new one, including your fish. You already have enough bacteria in the substrate to handle their wastes, so unless you're splitting up the group, just move them.

You'll need more gravel for the new tank, plus a larger filter and heater, but you can add the new gravel to the old (as long as it's all the same color - if you want to change it, consider putting in the old on one side, and adding new to the other, then slowly removing the old as the bacteria repopulate the new side. You can also run the old filter in the new tank along with the new one, since your filter media will also have bacteria in it. This also keeps the gravel and old filter "live" with the ammonia from the fish, so if you decide to add fish to the old tank, you won't have to wait for it to cycle - just move the filter and gravel back.

That said, there may be a slight disruption in the efficiency in the new tank from the move (a mini cycle), but unless your present tank is very overstocked, the bacteria shouldn't take more than a few days to recover.

Answer 2

Set up your new tank. Transfer some water from your 10 gallon into the larger tank when you do a water change on the 10. Take the filter material from your 10 gallon and put it into the filter on the larger tank. Let the whole thing run for a couple of days....heater and all. Add some hearty fish....Danios are always good. If you are loading it up with plants, you won't need the Danios ... after about 4 days just introduce the fish. Test the water parameters frequently with test strips although liquid test kits are more accurate.

Answer 3

Just be sure to let your water stand for 24 hours to burn off any excess chlorine. Or use only distilled water and let the filters cycle through for 24 hours before adding the fish.
If you are recycling rocks or such from another tank, wash them out with plain water and let them dry for 24 hours before adding them to the new tank. Again, let your filter cycle through everything for 24 hours before adding the fish.
A good rule of thumb is one fish for every five cubic inches of water. Smaller fish = more fish, larger fish = less fish. Some fish will surprise you by not only thriving but growing to full size and crowding the tank without any stress at all. Remember that rocks and cute statues displace water and reduce your overall water capacity, so factor in your water displacement from the rocks and stuff into the fish per cubic inch ratio. (Lots of rocks = less fish, few or no rocks = more fish.)
Prevent shock by putting the bags of fish in the water and equalizing the water temp. in the bag with the temp. in the tank and then pouring in the fish.
Have fun. It's okay to make mistakes, we've all made a few. It's how you figure it out. (And there's always more fish in the pet stores.)