New tank Transistion

[jasonwilks]

Hello, I have a 180 gallon fresh water tank made from acrylic. I am upgrading to a 180 gallon starphire glass tank from glasscages.

Currently I have like 10 fish in my tank, some are big fish. One is like 8 inches long and 2 inches think. Anyway, I have been dealing with a cloud problem for the past 5 months in this tank. It seems like no matter what I do I cant get rid of the cloudiness. Ive tried algea removers, heavy particle/metal combiners, frequent water changes, sometimes even like 98% water changes (did like 10 of them), nothing ever worked.

But Im about to get this starphire glass tank replacement tank on June 2nd. And I would like to know if I should transfer any of the gravel/water to my new tank so I dont have to wait long for the bacteria to develop? Is this going to transfer the cloud as well? Should thoroughly clean the gravel first?

Anything else I should consider while doing the tank change?

Sorry I am a newbie to all this stuff!

[pjaldave]

Cloudiness... Is it kind of white and hazy cloudy? If it is, then you were dealing with bacterial bloom during those 5 months.

Did you ever clean your filters? Like clean with tap water? Or do you replace filter media? If you do clean with tapwater or replace your media totally, then you throw/rinse away your cycle with the media.

Transferring the filter from the old one to the new one should do the trick with the bacterias. Provided that you actually have bacterias in your filter media.

Plus, I kinda don't get the whole point of switching tanks when they're both 180 gallons anyways..

I am glad and I congratulate you for researching further into this hobby. I hope you can tell us what kind of fish you have, or you can take pics and post it here to help us identify your fish.

[jasonwilks]

Thanks, it is kind of a grayish haze.

My tank currently uses 2 undergravel filters.

I own an Eheim pro 3 canister filter, but it is currently not hooked up, and the reason why was I thought it was the problem causing the cloudiness 5 months ago. I took it out and that never helped, and I never got the motivation to reinstalling it.

Here are some pics of the aquarium that I just took:

http://primelogic.ws/180-gallon-tank.htm

The reason why I am switching tanks is because I used to have a 180 gallon starphire glass tank and it had much better visual clarity than my current acrylic tank, but unfortunately the stand that holding it was not completely flat and was falling apart and made the tank crack and water spewed all over my house, which made me get the current acrylic tank. The stand now is totally fixed. It is now completely flat, and made from steel/granite. And I miss the clarity of my old glass tank! So much that I am going to get rid of my acrylic in favor of a starphire glass tank. Here are some old pics of my starphire glass tank: http://primelogic.ws/starphire.htm

[Stlouisfish]

Hello, I have a 180 gallon fresh water tank made from acrylic. I am upgrading to a 180 gallon starphire glass tank from glasscages.

Currently I have like 10 fish in my tank, some are big fish. One is like 8 inches long and 2 inches think. Anyway, I have been dealing with a cloud problem for the past 5 months in this tank. It seems like no matter what I do I cant get rid of the cloudiness. Ive tried algea removers, heavy particle/metal combiners, frequent water changes, sometimes even like 98% water changes (did like 10 of them), nothing ever worked.

But Im about to get this starphire glass tank replacement tank on June 2nd. And I would like to know if I should transfer any of the gravel/water to my new tank so I dont have to wait long for the bacteria to develop? Is this going to transfer the cloud as well? Should thoroughly clean the gravel first?

Anything else I should consider while doing the tank change?

Sorry I am a newbie to all this stuff!
Do you check your water parameters and what were your last readings for ammonia, nitrites & nitrates? How long has this tank been running? How many fish total do you have in there and what types?

Cloudiness suggests a bacterial bloom which indicates an uncycled tank but I can't believe it would be for that amount of time.

If you're going to transfer everything, the bacteria you want is in your filter, not the water - some is in the gravel but most of it is in the filter.

As pjaldave asked, how do you clean your filter? Do you replace the media or merely clean it in used tank water and put it right back in the filter (which is what you are supposed to be doing). Do you vacuum your substrate adequately to remove fish waste/uneaten food?

[pjaldave]

As they explained it in the show "Tanked", acrylic is 97% clear and glass is only 73% clear. It is not about the material but the cloudiness is in your water. Switching from acrylic to glass will certainly not help that if you're actually experiencing bacterial bloom.

Wait, undergravel filters? For a 180G? That's not really sufficient, and now I am convinced that your tank is going through a cycle the whole time. Go ahead and install that Eheim Pro you have, and you might want to add another canister filter as eheim pro 3 is only up to 150G.

I would actually toss those undergravel filters out and just go with the canister filters. I would add another canister, either rena xp4 or fluval 406 (or fx5).