question on how to transfer soil , plants , and discus to a new tank

[sawzai]

so .. i currently have a 1 1/2 year 50gallon tank planted housing 4 discus with 16 cardinal tetra and 5 corydoras.
and i have just bought a 120 gallon tank.


heres my plan :
1st : move 4 of my discus to a pail. ( cardinal and corydoras in another pail )
2nd : taking out plants
3rd : sucking up tank water to pail
4th : move all the soil to new tank + adding new pack of ADA new amazonia soil
5th : filling new tank with old tank water
6th : adding in my fish back

3 questions
will this work ?
how long can my discus survive in the pail ?
how long can the BB in the old filter survive ?

to transfer the soil and plants and filling up with water would take me about 2hours max.

[MKD]

I don't think it will work. Once you move and stir up the soil, bad bacteria comes out and will kill all your discus. plus (assume old soil is ADA AquaSoil too) 1 1/2 years old will breakdown. So it's better to keep that tank alone and set up new tank with new soil. Good luck with everything.

[matt56]

Agreed I would just set up a whole new setup then just transfer the filter over along witb the fish.

[sawzai]

I don't think it will work. Once you move and stir up the soil, bad bacteria comes out and will kill all your discus. plus (assume old soil is ADA AquaSoil too) 1 1/2 years old will breakdown. So it's better to keep that tank alone and set up new tank with new soil. Good luck with everything.

What do you mean with " leave that tank alone and set up a new tank with soil? "
My current tank is 1 1/2 year old, but my current tank ada aquasoil is just 2 months old o.o

[SMB2]

All new soil to the 120 gal, ~75% new water and age for 24 hrs, catch fish and place in holding, transfer plants and scape new tank, transfer old cycled filter (and will need larger capacity?), run filter for a few hours (or if your old school, polish with a Vortex) then add fish and top with old tank water. No new fish as you will likely have a mini cycle. Keep aged water ready for WCs. Watch water parameters.

[sawzai]

All new soil to the 120 gal, ~75% new water and age for 24 hrs, catch fish and place in holding, transfer plants and scape new tank, transfer old cycled filter (and will need larger capacity?), run filter for a few hours (or if your old school, polish with a Vortex) then add fish and top with old tank water. No new fish as you will likely have a mini cycle. Keep aged water ready for WCs. Watch water parameters.

Thanks. ! My current canister filter is rated 1500litre / hr. Will see how then.

[MKD]

Even with 2 months old soil, there is lot of stuffs trap under soil, you don't want to stir it up. if you decide to move it to new tank, don't put discus in right away. In my opinion you have to do plenty of water to make sure it's good for discus or rinse the soil pretty good before move to new tank.

[sawzai]

okay , i will do alot of rinsing with the old soil =] .

but how long will the discus survive in a pail and how long would the BB survive in the filter without running ?

[MKD]

With airstone and ok temperature, they will survive for day without water change and BB will last couple hrs with airstone too (PERSONAL wont go more than 6hrs, if more than 6hrs I let it run on temp tank). Most important, you must check your water parameter often and do WC .