Tropical to coldwater transition

[Garo]

Could anyone help,

 

I am about to change my tank from a tropical tank to a cold water tank. Now that a friend has taken my old tropical fish, would it be wise to empty the tank and start again, maturing the tank from new of merely take out the heater??

 

The tanks got an internal filter, gravel, rock and bogwood. All of which i want to use in my new set up. I'm mostly concerned about tranferring tropical based bateria? confused??

 

Thanks

[MrWiggly]

Hi Garo .. and welcome aboard !!

 

I would simply take out the heater ... any bio-activity in there is well established, so why strip/rebuild the tank ?

 

Don't know of any "tropical" diseases than can be transferred to coldwater ... I can't remember the last time I saw a fish with malaria, or Ebola !!

 

Get a few "cheap" cold-waters to start with, then keep an eye on them for a few weeks ..

Edited September 15, 2007 by MrWiggly

[Si...]

All I would do is take out the heater, the bacteria is well established, so why have the hassle of doing a complete strip/rebuild

[Garo]

Thanks gents, will do just that.