Going To A Larger Tank?

Well, I love my 6g long bookshelf tank but it's some sort of plastic material and I'm not thrilled by the algae that sticks to it. It has to be scrubbed off and it makes a haze on the plastic surface. I am using a special scrubber that is not supposed to harm it but my guess it does to some extent anyway. The tank is a one piece thing so not too many worries about leaks but I still am thinking about upgrading it. Also the plants are just amazing and crowding out the fish. Despite the labels saying this plant or that grows 2 to 4 inches, they are all much taller and still going so that makes me desire a bigger tank too.

I was thinking about just a 10g, as I don't really want to go any bigger and wondered where I can find information on how to transfer to another tank. I've got a few critters, 2 Julie cory's, 1 guppy, 1 otto, a dwarf albino frog and 3 red tetras. They are all peaceful and the tank is very stable now thanks to all the great advice from this forum. The plants have gone absolutely crazy and are lush and very green. I would like to keep them so I was thinking about transferring the gravel from the old tank, plus a bit extra since the new tank is a bit bigger on the bottom, but I wonder about losing all that nice bacteria. I want to put the new tank on the same shelf as the old one so a long transfer seems not to possible. Basically, to me, put the fish in the bucket with filtration and heat, empty the tank, keep the water, put up the new one, put the gravel in it, fill it up with the old water, put the plants back, filter and heater, then the fish. 

Some how, this seems loaded with all kinds of fishy danger. I saw a post about someone who put the new tank in a new location but I want to keep mine in the same place. That creates a logistical problem. Okay, enough typing. Let me know what you recommend or where to look. Thanks!!!!

Wow! Thank you. This is awesome. Lots of good advice here and ideas.  I will still have to mull it over. I live in the land of earthquakes so bigger tanks cause me worry. Last time I had a big tank, we had a quake and 55 gallons of fish, water and plants ended up in the middle of my bed!

I will let you know how it goes when I do it. Most likely I will, I just have to work up the nerve. Grins :-)

HAHAHA!

The San Francisco Bay Area. The last quake that got my fish was over 75 miles away, but the waves traveled in such a way that the entire contents of the tank plopped into the middle of my bed. I wasn't home of course so when I did get there, the only damage inside the house was my bed. Completely sodden and with some very dried out fish.