# UPGRADING from 30g to 120g tank!!! media filter...



## ladystoneheart92 (Sep 17, 2013)

Hi guys. I'm upgrading from a 30 gallon Cichlid tank to 120 gallon long, rectangular tank possbily as soon as tonight! I've read everywhere about the whole process of transfering your fish over but one thing no one is saying or I'm just not understanding is how you can put your filter media from such a small filter, into a drastically bigger filter? I have a Aqueon 30 gallon QuietFlow filter that's not so good. We got another 10 gallon filter to make up for the slack of the 30 because it wasn't turning over the water at the correct rate. So I'm probably going to go with a canister filter for the 120 tank, hopefully a Fluval, and I'm kinda clueless about filters. Should I just run both of my current filters in the new tank along with a canister filter made for the 120g at the same time? If so, how will I know when to take the old filters out? I've read that you don't need to even transfer any of your old tank water because all the good bacteria is mostly contained to the filter media and some in the gravel and on the rocks.
So my plan as of now is to:
-Only put a small amount of the old tank water in the new tank (maybe under 50%?)
-Transfer all the decor (rocks) and gravel into the new tank
-Add additional gravel/sand and decor to make up for the size difference (already ordered more of the same slate rocks)
-Transfer over my 30g and 10g crappy filters to the 120g tank and run a new canister filter at the same time
-Of course, add Malawi salt buffer and water treatment products to the new water
-Let the tank sit for 24 hours then add the fish!
Thanks for reading this post and helping out! So excited but don't want to mess anything up!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I find the easiest method is to run the seasoned filters on the new tank along with the new filter, especially since the new filter is a canister.

If your old tank has low nitrate (NO3) levels, you could add it to the new tank but I wouldn't bother. The old water doesn't really harbor a substantial amount of beneficial bacteria, as far as I know.

Is there a reason you are using a Malawi salt buffer for your tank? It may not be necessary unless you have tested the KH (alkalinity) and GH (hardness) of your tap water and you need to buffer it.

If you are just transferring the existing cichlids from the 30G to the 120G tank, you should be able to add them the same day once the new tank is up to temperature. I would not add any new additional fish for a few weeks as you will want to monitor your water parameters via testing.

Also, moving the old filters to the new tank would leave your old tank with fish without any filtration. I would just get the new tank set up, condition the water, get it up to temperature, transfer the old filters and then transfer the fish over.

What are the dimensions of the new 120G tank?


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## lp85253 (Sep 27, 2011)

I would use some of the old tank water ,, not for bacteria , but to best simulate the fishes previous tank environment .. that IMO.. REDUCES stress


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

I have this both way. When I setup my 75G tho, I just moved some of the filter media into the canister and then filled it the rest of the way with new. I let that run while some of my old media was in the old filter on the old tank. I let that run for about a week. The day I moved all the sand and decor to the new tank I also moved the fish. This worked just fine.

The nice thing about canisters is that they have a very large filter media chamber and its very easy to put all kinds of media in them. You can put old filter pads, cartridges and even bio media in them with really no issues at all. Once the new filter media is established the old media can be removed and you can add more media to the canister.


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## Tyler_James_L (Jun 19, 2013)

I just have a habit of using old tank water (I don't know how well it works or not) but I hear a lot of times sand, gravel, etc carry a lot of the beneficial bacteria.


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