Ele 40 Posted July 29, 2013 Hi my names Eleanor and I am new to this site. I have a question(s) concerning upgrading my aquarium. I have bought a 30 gallon aquarium for my one Ryukin goldfish. She is currently in a 20 and I wanted to give her more space. I also bought a 55/75 Aqueon filter which runs at 400 gph. Anyway, after looking all over the internet I haven't been able to find the answer to my upgrading questions which are: Can I put my new filter on my old aquarium to "prep" it for the new aquarium or will that make all my levels (bacteria, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ect.) off? If so could I just soak my new filter cartridges in a bucket of old aquarium water to transfer the beneficial bacteria? I am planning on putting my old water in my new aquarium but my filter cartridges aren't the same size so there isn't really anyway for me to use an old one in my new filter to start the build up of good bacteria. I hope I posted this in the right spot and I hope all of this makes sense! Thank you guys so much! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yafashelli 9,540 Posted July 29, 2013 You can move your new filter to your old tank, yes. Also, you can take your old filter, and place it on your new tank, so your friend can enjoy all that extra space. Regarding the old tank water, just put fresh water in your new tank. Beneficial bacteria is mostly found in your filter media, so there's really not much benefit to moving old water over. Good for you, for giving your fish so much space. Be sure to post pictures! Welcome to Kokos. We're very glad to have you! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fantailfan1 26,742 Posted July 29, 2013 and welcome! ^^What Tammy said. You took the words out of my mouth. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ele 40 Posted July 29, 2013 Thank you so much for the super quick replies and the warm welcome! That answered all my questions, I just didn't want to kill everything and cause my fish to suffer. I'm off work Tuesday and I can't wait to get it up and running! I will try to post some pictures sometime soon! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dnalex 13,633 Posted July 29, 2013 Welcome! 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmetzger72 6,976 Posted July 29, 2013 Welcome to the forum 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel 5,668 Posted July 29, 2013 Welcome to the site, Ele. You've received some good advice thus far. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellbell4ever 1,381 Posted July 29, 2013 Hello and Welcome to koko's Just put the filter media from your old cycled filter in your new filter 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flipper 13,057 Posted July 29, 2013 and welcome to Koko's ! This is a great forum with wonderful people and lots of collective knowledge!! BTW I your name and if I ever had a girl baby she would be Eleanor... Its a family name I agree with the above mentioned new water in new tank and old filter media to seed your new filter 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ele 40 Posted July 29, 2013 Okay so I'm going to drain the water out and just fill the new one with new water and an old filter cartridge, thank you all so much for your help! I would be making this a lot harder on myself if it wasn't for all the help! and welcome to Koko's ! This is a great forum with wonderful people and lots of collective knowledge!! BTW I your name and if I ever had a girl baby she would be Eleanor... Its a family name I agree with the above mentioned new water in new tank and old filter media to seed your new filter Yall certainly do have a whole ton of knowledge!! and thank you so much for the complement! Surprisingly it isn't a family name for us my dad just randomly named me that 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mernany 3,708 Posted August 4, 2013 welcome! I just put my old media in my new filter when I moved to the bigger tank. Since the media was too small for the new filter I put new media in there as well. Everything was together in the filter for a couple months and then threw out the old stuff to fit bio max in there instead! I didn't have a cycle bump but I was testing often just in case Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
