How long should I wait to put my fish into my 14 gallon tank?

Question

Recently my 10 gallon fish tank cracked and i lost about 3-4 gallons of water. I had my fish in a bucket for a while with the filter/heater/oxygen. I just purchased a 14 gallon tank and filled it up with the water from the bucket along with water which I have treated with a dechlorinator. It has been about 1 hour, how long should I wait to put my fish in the new tank?

Answer 1

24 hours

Answer 2

since you have transferred everything into the new tank, and just filled up with new water which was conditioned, this was basically just like a big waterchange

you can put your fish in now

just keep an eye on the parameters for the next days, also don't remove the old filter until all your parameters are fine

which means, 0 nitrite and ammonia, and nitrAtes around 20ppm

this takes usually about 2-4 weeks for the good bacteria from the old one to transfer to the new filter

Answer 3

It isn't just the water that holds the bacteria needed for a healthy tank, in fact the water holds very little of this. The main amount of this bacteria lies in the gravel and filter media. I would take out the old filter media and put that in the new filter, if you used the old filter that is just fine as well, and take a couple handfuls of the old gravel and put it in a mesh bag. This should seed the tank and you need only wait 1 week max, but with the situation you are in I would recomend you wait for the bacteria to get a hold (maybe a couple hours, I wouldn't keep the fish in a bucket for long) and put the fish in, do daily/every other day water changes of 25% and that should do it.

Answer 4

Anywhere from a day to 2 weeks.