Well, firstly, I took one last photo of the 30 litre in place.

I laid everything out and ready for the big transfer. I lined my lounge floor with plastic bag liners, had buckets of old water from the 30 litre, plenty of towels and paper towels at the ready.

I started by cleaning the 60 litre in the bath and washing all the bits and bobs needed to go into it.

I then removed the plants and rocks from my 30 litre, leaving the fish in there believeing that an emty tank would make it easier to catch them!! Oh how wrong could I be, but more of that later! I then transeffred my fish to the bucket and removed almost all the media gravel from the 30.

Then, once the 60 was clean, I arranged my rock from the 30, 2 real plants that came with the tank, one plastic plant and the media fro the 30 into the new tank. I then used the sponge, no squeezing, from the 30. I then used the new fueng shey shoo pebbles to lay onto top of the media.

I then chased the fish round the 30 to get them into the bucket. I had already filled the bucket with water from the 30 and placed a plastic plant and rock from the 30 into the bucket. Now I am sure that there is a knack to catching fish quickly with a net, but I failed to find it and catching the Oto as a task in itself. Once I had completed that, I left the 30 to settle so that I could gently transfer the remaining water.

I emptied the space out ready for the stand and the new tank.

I then carefully transferred the water from the 30 and the water that I had stored n containers into the new tank. It was a delicate and very long part of the operation!!

Then I carefully chased the fish round the bucket until they were all counted and in the new tank!!! Again, I failed to master the catching of fish with a net from a dark bucket, but I got there with patience and some calming talk!!!

Then I transferred the water from the bucket back into the 60 and proceeded to walk backwards and forwards form thre kitchen for at least 10 miles whilst I slowly topped the 60 up with a further 21 litres of treated water.

Then I just had to watch, sit and wait for it all to settle down enough so that I could see inside the tank and check that there were no leaks and that the pump and heater were all working ok.

All in all, it took three hours with about 40 minutes of preparation to complete the task.

On Sunday morning I swapped my original rock from the 30 for a new rock that came with the 60 as the colour suited my room and the tank better!!!

As you can see by the pictures, the tank settled very nicely overnight and looks very clean and very sparkly!!!!

I have to say that the whole task went very smoothly and was a lot easier than I had imagined. I am glad that I got everything ready in advance and had it laid out over my floor as it made life much easier.

I am very happy with my new look tank and very excited about having real plants. I am going to add 3 more Oto next weekend and then let things settle down again.

I am tempted to add maybe a few more community fish, but I will see in a few weeks. I am just so happy that my one and only Oto survived and my baby Nemo the second. Oh, and I may add another real plant so that I can get rid of the plastic one!!!!

I am well and truly addicted!