Moving/Upgrading Nano Aquariums

[Stephanie K]

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! 

We are planning to move in April (only about 2 hours away) and we have a few questions about moving and upgrading our tanks.

We currently only have one male betta, one nerite snail and some live plants in a 5 gallon tank. We plan to upgrade our tank when we move, but still have a few questions. 

1. We will upgrade our fish to a 10 gallon tank. We got a sponge filter for the new (10 gallon) tank and we’re planning to let it run in our current (5 gallon) tank until the move. Does anyone recommend turning off the current filter (but leaving it in) and only running the new sponge filter since it’s such a small tank? Or can we just run both? We’ll need to leave the current filter in the tank either way since we plan to move the sponge filter to the new house ahead of time. 

2. Ideally we will be setting up the 10 gallon (with the seeded sponge filter) at least a week before putting our fish in. Aside from adding in some bottled beneficial bacteria, should we be prepared to do anything else before we move in the fish and plants? Just water testing before and after adding the fish to check parameters?

3. Lastly, since the drive will only be a couple of hours, is transporting everyone in bags the easiest/best way?

 

As always, thank you to this kind community for your help!

[Wingman12r]

Run both for a couple of weeks, if possible turn the flow down on the first filter. Even better would be to put the sponge inside the first filter and slowly remove the old media. 

[Stephanie K]

@Wingman12r Our first filter is on the lowest setting so that should work. But since our tank is small, your suggestion makes sense. Thanks for your input!