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Hi, I will be upgrading from a 75g to 125g. The 75g is a bare bottom tank with two pieces of driftwood. I keep the inside glass clean so most of the bacteria should be in the emperor 400 filtering the tank. The tank is coming tuesday morning and I can't have both tanks filled with water on the 3rd floor of my home (the 125g is going in the opposite corner of the 75g but still thats alot of weight). Should I not see any cycle from this upgrade if I..

1.Drain the 75g to 60% (lowest I can go and still keep emperor primed)

2.Fill 125g to 30% add heater and dechlorinator

3. Pump 40% of water from 75g to 125g + top off with tap

4. Transfer emperor + driftwood, leave fish in 75g with airstone.

5. Check temp transfer fish.


The 75g and stand are going to the basement just incase the 125g ever springs a leak. Fish being transfered are 4" jardini arowana,6" rafael cat 7" sunshine pleco, 8 sterbai cories, 6 5" clown loaches, and 4 5" discus white butterfly. The arowana was bought a month ago so don't think I'm crazy arowana + discus lol. The 75g was a discus comunity tank for 7 years.

My brother in law is setting up a 55g planted so he will be taking the everything but arowana, sunshine and ralph. I hope the rafael can stay he is very old and only comes out from the driftwood at night to eat.


For final stocking I plan to have the jardini, sunshine pleco, rafael cat, scarlet pleco and a silver prochilodus
filter by an emperor 400 and a spare fluval 404 I have.

Hi
Considering the circumstances, it sounds like you
have assembled a prudent game plan. I'm not sure that
you won't have some cycling and I'd advise keeping an
eye on the three values (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) for
the next week or so after the transfer. With those size
fish, and no gravel, you are placing quite a load on that
filter. Making it solely responsible for the nitrogen cycle
of that tank could put you on the edge, especially if you
are in an area where traffic accidents, wind storms, ice
storms, etc. could cause power outages.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi, seems like you know what you're doing. Thing to remember tho, is that most of the benificial bacteria lives in your substrate, filter, decorations, etc. Not in the water. Adding the water from the old tank will help a lot, but if you could get more out of the old tank; driftwood, plants, the little diver guy(lol) it would transfer more of the bacteria and thus reduce any mini cycle. Maybe even put a few nylons with substrate in the tank for a few weeks for the bacteria to grow, then transfer them to the new tank.
Just out of curiosity, why the bare bottom? And I do agree with Frank about putting quite a load on the filter to provide all your bactreria. anything in the tank for it to grow on will be a big help.
Know what ya mean, my little dwarf pleco is my fav. I wanna keep him forever. congrats on the new tank

Hi again, I leveled the tank on tuesday and added the fish on wednesday. I kept the lights off, didn't feed and I tested the water untill saturday. The water was cloudy but tested 0 for ammonia and nitrite, but the test may have not been accurate because of prime. sunday morning the water had cleared up alot and still tested 0 for ammonia and nitrite and the fish didn't seem stressed so I fed lightly for the first time. Today the tank is 90% clear and still test 0 ammonia and nitrite, Can the prime still be messing with the tests even though it's been 5 days since I added it?

I think the emperor has enough surface area for bio filtration 2 large bio wheels 2 emperor cartridges and 2 extra media baskets with filter floss and 1oz of crushed coral(and 8 fluval bio rings). I only had a power outage once and it was the time the power grid got messed up in canada/ny and it affected the east coast, so I used my 600 watt dc to ac power inverter hooked up to my car.

Hi drivertran, I used 40% of the water from the 75 because it was the perfect temp, pH and hardness. I like bare bottom because it's so clean when I was gowing discus the filter would make all the poop gather in one corner and it less then 5 min a day I could have it all out and water replaced. No food gets into the gravel. I have also grown to like the look of bare bottom, on the 125 I spray painted the styrofoam under the tank black and the only decoration in the tank is a 4" Y pvc pipe that the loaches pleco and catfish stay in. I may add a floating plant after I give away the discus.

My brother in law took the 75 and ordered a emperor and heater from bigals, it should be here this week. I'm going to give him the 8 fluval bio rings in my emperor to seed the tank and he will fishless cycle it and take my discus cories and loaches.