Seamlessly & Safely Upgrading a Tank

[NYCShrimp]

Hello forum!

It's been a while! Good news: every single unaffected shrimp survived following my emergency water change, and they had all been doing VERY well until one recently got stuck in a molt. He is dying The rest are all bright red and picking around, very happy. I don't feed them or do much of anything other than drop my nerite in there every now and then to clean up the glass.

I have purchased a new tank for these guys, and was wondering how best to make the transition. It's an all-glass 2.5 gallon (not much of an upgrade, I know, but it fits in the tiny space and is totally gorgeous). I am buying finer sand-like substrate, so the shrimp won't get "stuck" in the cracks between my larger gravel, although I suspect this only happens when shrimp are already dying and are spasming/too weak to get out.

How do I cycle this/best make the transition? Ideally, I would like to put the fine sand on top of the established larger gravel I already have, that is full of good bacteria. I guess I could move all the shrimp and their water into a clean bowl temporarily, dump the old gravel into the new tank, cover it with the new sand gravel, fill it with clean water, then let it sit for a couple of weeks? Meanwhile, I could transfer the shrimp and their rocks back into the gravel-less old tank until the new one settles.

If I am using the old water and established gravel, do I still have to wait? If so, how long? I don't have a whole lot of space to work with, and having 2 tanks around will be a bit of a challenge.

[Varanus]

I would think it should be safe to do the move quickly, since you are effectively moving a great deal of the good bacteria from the old tank to the new. It may even be better as it would reduce the number of times you have to put the shrimp under the stress of being moved. I know I've had success setting up freshwater tanks immediately just by moving old tank water and filter media to it. Might still want to test for potential ammonia spikes a few times after the move just to be safe.

[NYCShrimp]

Thanks! My CaribSea Tahitian Moon fine gravel arrives on Wednesday, so I'll be attempting the move on Thursday.

Another question: What is the best way to clean the fine gravel, and everything else? I accidentally contaminated my tank not too long ago and lost 5 shrimp, and I'd like to avoid the same thing (the new tank is almost 3x the size).

I am planning on doing the following:
1. cleaning everything with plain warm tapwater (glass tank, heater and new gravel)
2. transferring the water, rocks, moss and shrimp into a clean bowl (rinsed with plain water and dried)
3. dumping all of the "dirty" gravel into the new tank and covering it with the new finer gravel (1/2" deep at most)
4. adding about a gallon of prepared distilled salty water with a tiny drop of Prime in it to neutralize anything bad that might be in the tap water I used for cleaning things
5. replacing the rocks and moss
6. adding all "dirty" water and shrimp
7. topping off with salty water

[Varanus]

That sounds good to me, but I should note that the moon sand actually needs less cleaning than normal sand, they pre-wash it or something. So if you have a free filter you may be able to get away with not washing it much at all, just putting it in the tank and running the filter until the water clears. Whatever you find easier I guess, I've always found actually rinsing anything more than a small amount of sand in a bucket or bag to be time consuming and less-than effective.

[Mech]

i wouldnt clean anything in tap water, just stick to putting some RO water in a bucket and washing what you need in that. I have that sand i its worth rinsing in RO water, its no where near as bad as normal substrate to clean but there is some bits in i hat just seem to float on top of the water when mixed.

[NYCShrimp]

Wow, thanks for the tips you guys! I don't have access to R/O water, so distilled from the supermarket will have to do. The sand actually arrived today, so I may attempt the move tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. I was so sad to lose so many little dudes due to a contaminant (totally realized what it was-- I had been cleaning the bathroom with Clorox wipes when I noticed the heater had popped loose from the wall, so I stuck my hand in to pop it back on), so I'm hoping the class tank and larger volume will be a little better.

Oh yeah, any tips for catching shrimp? I was gonna try to gently suck 'em up a straw. Not with my mouth, but with gravity/pressure. You know, like bartenders do to taste a drink they concocted.

[NYCShrimp]

Well, I did it. I somehow wrangled all the shrimp out into a bowl and they were all OK, though clearly traumatized. Currently, they are all hiding in the lava rock pile.

The dirty water scum is settling in a layer all over everything in the tank, though. This doesn't seem good....

I do have a filter lying around that I could have run, but I didn't because I wanted to preserve the bacteria/scum from the old tank. I think I overdid it. Should I stir everything up and run the filter for a day if the layer of scum is still really bad? It's several months worth of shrimp and snail poo, and will probably just sit on top of the sand.

[mcdaney]

I think it's okay for you to run the filter for a few hours (or maybe a night) to clear up some of the scum/debris. Don't worry, you will still have beneficial bacteria as long as you keep the old water. Make sure you're 100% sure all shrimps are out haha! Arrange how you want your scape (rocks etc) to be, then run the filter.

[Mech]

Wow, thanks for the tips you guys! I don't have access to R/O water, so distilled from the supermarket will have to do. The sand actually arrived today, so I may attempt the move tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. I was so sad to lose so many little dudes due to a contaminant (totally realized what it was-- I had been cleaning the bathroom with Clorox wipes when I noticed the heater had popped loose from the wall, so I stuck my hand in to pop it back on), so I'm hoping the class tank and larger volume will be a little better.

Oh yeah, any tips for catching shrimp? I was gonna try to gently suck 'em up a straw. Not with my mouth, but with gravity/pressure. You know, like bartenders do to taste a drink they concocted.

I have a tropical community tank in my front room, my wife used to help do water changes but my shrimp started to die.. Turns out her hands and wrists in the tank and what ever perfume she had on didn't mix well. Took us a few weeks to realise... Now i do the water changes my self (which is fine by her, apparently :p )

[NYCShrimp]

Stuff settled overnight and covered EVERYTHING! One shrimp is even covered in scum, and I don't feel very optimistic about this little guy being OK.

I put a filter on, filled it with extra floss pads, and stirred up all the gunk. I ran the filter for an hour and everything cleared up completely! The shrimp stayed well out of the way for all this. I'll take a photo in a bit.

I was going to try to sell that little filter new on Craigslist. I should have taken before and after pictures....that would have impressed people.

[NYCShrimp]

Mech--- Oh no! It's crazy how just the tiniest amount of something can have a big impact. I'm certain I must have had just a trace on my hands, but it caused a lot of damage in my 1-gal tank.

I'll be much more careful in the future with both my FW and Opae Ula tanks. They're both getting the upgrade to a 2.5 gallon, and I tricked out the HOB filter for the FW one with a prefilter sponge and a bunch of ceramic rings and extra filter pads.

[NYCShrimp]

Ok, the water is still a little cloudy but here is the new setup:

[Mech]

Looking good, my water went cloudy after I removed the filter.. But I'm sure it will clear up.

[NYCShrimp]

Update: I ran the filter for a few more hours and it really cleared everything up quite a bit. It turns out I actually have 9 surviving shrimp out of my original 14, following the Clorox contamination and the one stuck in the molt. I could have sworn only 8 survived! They all appear to be fine, and enjoy hanging out behind the heater. I think this means I need to build up the lava rock pile a little more.

[Mustafa]

I'm glad things went fine, but for future reference I would just run a new tank a few weeks, after adding some substrate from the old tank, until I see algae growth. That's probably still the most fool-proof method. My experience is that cycled that way the shrimp will feel immediately comfortable whereas they kinda hide for a while and wait for better conditions if the tank isn't cycled yet (and some may die unfortunately).