Moving To A Bigger Tank, But Want To Leave Snails Behind

Hello everyone, my first post to this forum. 

I set up my first aquarium, a 45 litre one 3 months ago and had been running it very successfully since. I love it ad my family loves it. See the picture. So we want more fish and upgrading to a 180 litre tank - a Juwel Rio 180 I picked up second hand on eBay. Now I need to cycle the new tank and want relocate the residents with minimum fuss. So I have a few questions.

The current tanks has got gravel, live plants and a piece of bogwood. The filter is internal with one piece of sponge, see picture. The current inhabitants are 8 cardinal tetras, 4 guppies, 2 platies, 1 dwarf chain loach (I will add more after the move to a bigger tank) and a population of snails. I want to move as many things over as I can, but I’m keen to leave the nuisance snails behind!

So I'm thinking of not moving the plants or the gravel, as I don't want to transfer any snails or snail eggs in the process.

1. Is it OK to move the bogwood, after giving it a good bathing it in hot water?

2. Can I use the filter media from the old filter, which would have allowed me to move my fish all at once, or is there a risk or moving the snails over?

3. Can I move the water from the old tank or does the same risk exist?

If I can't move the filter, then I guess I'll just cycle the new tank as I would with a new tank and move my fish gradually.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks for advice Sue.

I try not to overfeed the fish, as I read about dangers of doing that time and time again, so I hope that's not the contributing factor here.

My snails look like Bladder snail variety and I got the Dwarf Chain Loach hoping it will help to keep their population down. I think he does eat them as I haven't got a massive numbers, although I keep watching him and noticed him rummaging around gravel I have never seen him eat a snail. I wonder if he feeds on them at night.

Reading what you said about giving up the fight and reading other posts about snails made me think that trying to get rid of them might be a lost battle anyway. If I do manage to move to the new tank and not carry them over, chances are they'll arrive on a the next plant from the aquatics shop.

I wonder if there are lots of people who manage to keep their tanks snail free.

But just to warn you Pawel, 180 litres isn't big enough for clown loaches, so don't be tempted 

Sounds like a fish I was looking for! and they do look nice. If I could hire one hungry Clown Loach for a day. 

Assassin snails are deadly...

Nice species Colin!

Interesting idea about Assassin snails, but a little worried about swapping one snail colony for another. Would it work at all if I add just one Assassin snail? Do you think he'll be effective and would he still reproduce?

Thanks for clarifying and for the link Sue.

I was going to say that a squad of male assassins would be the perfect solution! But reading about them and that you can't tell the difference between the male and female quashed that idea.

Thanks for the advice dbaggie, sounds like unless you have a bigger loaches, other methods may or may not work. I'll guess I'll just see what happens. If I do get snails in the new tank I'll think about it then, either get more dwarf chain loaches or assassin snails and as you say, if they get too many, pass them on to other suffering fish keepers!

Snail lovers - look away now!

There is always the 'squash 'em and feed 'em to the fish approach! My guppies love them.

 

The better way is to put the old media inside the new filter, leaving out some new media to make space for the old. The filter bacteria don't just migrate to the new filter. If you put the whole old filter in the new tank, they'll just stay in the old filter. if you get more fish, the bioload will increase so the amount of bacteria will increase to cope with it, but they may or may not set up home in the new filter. The bacteria will colonise the new media better if it is physical contact with the old. Yes, you will lose the bacteria that were growing on the old filter casing, but they will only be a small proportion of the total.
Once the new filter has been running a couple of months with the old media inside, you can start replacing the old with the media that comes with the new filter a bit at a time with several weeks between each batch. Or just leave the old in there.


If you want to do it by running both filters, wait at least 2 months before removing the old, then keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels for several days; do a water change if you see either of them showing up.