moving on up...

[Baldrick]

My son's got a new, larger tank, and its up to me to move the works from the old tank. Obviously, if I get it wrong, I might as well just leave home , so I'm checking that I'm on the right track. Is it as "simple" as moving the fish into buckets of tank water with a bubbler and heater, and putting the plants, substrate, ornaments, etc in the new tank, and replacing the fish? Does the new tank need to run a while, or can the fish go straight in? Should I dose with Melafix as a precaution against stress causing any troubles?
Thanks for any advice

[Crumpet]

I wouldn't dose with the melafix, instead I would use some stress-zyme or aquarium salt (if they are not scale-less) in the buckets while the fish wait to move into their new home. The bubblers and heaters are a great idea.  If the fish are going to be in the buckets a long time, I would hold off on feeding them a couple days before everything gets moved to cut down on the waste they will produce while in the buckets.  Instead of buckets you can also go with a large styrofoam cooler that you could poke holes into the lid for the bubbler and heater.

[Laura]

I wouldn't bother with the melafix either.

I just changed my tank up from a 45 to a 65.  I got as many buckets as I could get my hands on, put the fish in the largest bucket with a bunch of floating plants so they felt safer, threw a towel over the top of the bucket to stop jumpers and kept some buckets filled with the old water to refill the new tank.  I suggest lowering the water level and removing the decor before catching the fish.

I scooped the gravel out at the very end with a strainer so the dirty water stayed in the tank, didn't wash the gravel, and I didn't clean the filter - I wanted to try and preserve as much of the bacteria as possible so I didn't have a mini cycle when I started up again.
I didn't bother with a bubbler for the fish, but they were only in a bucket for a couple of hours - I guess it depends on the situation - it can't hurt.

I refilled the tank, and acclimatised the fish to the new water mix that likely had a different ph than my more established tank.  I acclimatised them by leaving them in the bucket, taking out some old water and adding new water over about 1/2 hr until I figured it was close enough.

It took a while for the water to clear as I didn't wash the gravel, but it's now clear completely after 2 days and looks fine. 

[homestar726]

You should be fine. When I moved form my 29g to my 55g, I put my cichlids (all of them), rainbow, pleco, and mollie in a 5g bucket with and airstone. Knowing that the tear down and new set up would be a few hours, I made sure the temperature was regulated and didn't spike. I would also put an ornement that they can "Hide" in while in close quaters. Also some original substrate would realy make life easier for them.

Other than that you should be fine. I would definitely not use the Melafix.

WHat kind of fish?

[Baldrick]

Wow! Thanks for all the great suggestions. I like the idea of a towel over the bucket to stop the jumpers. I'll also forget the idea of melafix.

The tank has danios, corys, platys, swordtails and guppies.

The biggest challenge will be moving the fry - some are only a week old. They're hiding out in a big clump of weed, and I'm hoping I can lift the whole works out in a tea towel, and plunk it in a separate bucket, then go after the adults. I'd like to wait for the fry to be older, but lately we've always got tiny ones. Spring is in the air!

[Nerine]

Congrats on the bigger tank

I'm sure everything will go smoothly! Good luck with moving the fish