Loaches Online Forum

I am having new floors installed in my house which necessitates dismantling the current 55 gal aquarium. I am also taking this opportunity to upgrade to a significantly large tank which will take me a few weeks to procure and set up.

In the meantime, I plan on temporarily housing my loaches in a 40gallon breeder with the filters from the current tank. I have 4 total, 1-5" and 3-3". In addition to the filters, the driftwood and live plants will be moving (what can reasonably fit). The other fish will be split between existing (much smaller) tanks in the house.

I know loaches prefer aged tanks, but I'm thinking they should be ok since I'm taking most of the items with the existing bacteria etc... on it. Other than watching parameters very closely, is there anything else I haven't considered?

When I upgrade to the new tank (180 gallon) what should I be aware of? I'm going to try to do a fish less cycle to start it, and use existing stuff to jump start it, but am I missing anything critical.

Thanks,
Bridget

You should be able to put the old filters on the new tank just like you're doing with the 40. If you're adding more, larger filters put half of the old media in the new filter. You shouldn't need to cycle it. There should be enough bacteria to support your existing fish load. Give it time to settle before adding more fish and add them slowly to allow the bacteria to catch up.

That's what I thought, but wanted confirmation since I really don't want to lose my loaches in the transfer.