ba-dabing

Hi there !
I'm so glad I found your forum and the Fishlore site ! It's packed with so much usefull info !

I purchased a 10 gallon tank about 3 years ago as a birthday present for one of my kids, needless to say I am the one who's maintained it for the past 3 years
I don't mind and from reading the posts on this forum I don't know who's been luckier - me or the poor fish !

We started out with 3 Red Wagtail Platys and then as they had babies we kept another 3. Every so often I bring a bunch of the offspring that are large enough to catch to the local fish store and I try not to let the tank go over 10 full sized fish.

Up till recently we have had the same 6 fish for the past 3 years. When the 2 oldest ones died (I am assuming it was from old age? They were full sized fish when I got them.) I decided to go ahead and try my hand at a larger tank set up.

I purchased a 20 gallon (24x16x12) tank and a 30 gallon pump ( I seem to remember the fish guy telling me to always get the next size larger on the pump compared to the fish tank).

I went ahead and set up the 20 gallon this past Sunday and put 5 gallons of water from my old tank along with 10 gallons of fresh water in the new tank. Then I took an old, clean panty hose leg and filled it with gravel from the old tank and put that in the new tank. There's nothing else in the tank right now -- just the water and the pantyhose with the gravel in it.

I read about cycling the tank and did a test strip reading (yes, I know now I need to get a real kit) and the strip says Nitrates - 30 PPM, nitrite - 0 ppm, Total Hardness 120 ppm, Total alkalinity - 120 ppm, pH - 7.2

Does that sound like I'm on the right track?
I'll wait another week or so before putting a couple of fish in if you think I should. Just want to make sure everyone makes it to the new tank as quickly and comfortably as possible.

My other question is -- Since I only have 15 gallons total water in the 20 gallon tank should I add water from the established 10 gallon tank or new water?

Thanks for the help !

MissMTS

Congrats on the new tank and welcome to fishlore! You were smart to use the gravel and water from your old tank. What would be perfect is if you could put the filter media from your old tank into your new tank. If you do this your tank will be instantly cycled and you can add a few fish right away. You should definetly get some liquid test kits because sometimes the strips will give you completely different readings. Do you have a heater? What temperature is your tank at? If you let us know what kind of fish you want to add to it, we can help with the stocking options. I would add clean water to the tank for the remaining 5 gallons. Your Nitrates shouldn't be at 30, so you may want to get a liquid kit and retake the reading. You never want to let them get above 20.

ba-dabing

Thanks for the quick reply !

OK, I put the old media cartridge into the new filter pump so that's circulating in there now. Wow ! That media cartridge was heavy compared to the new fresh one.

I do have a heater, in a box... somewhere. I used it initially for a while but then it never seemed to cycle on and off? It works but the temp in the tank never fluctuated enough to have the heater kick on.

I filled up a 3 gallon jug with some fresh water and I'm letting it sit overnight... I'll add it to the new tank tomorrow.

Oh.. and I get paid this Friday so I'll get a test kit and a thermometer over the weekend.

I think I'm going to keep 3 or 4 platys from the old tank and maybe add some Corydora? From what I've been reading about them it seems they would make good tank mates for the Platys.

So, 3 or 4 Platys plus 6 Corydora? That's 10 fish in a 20 gallon tank... is that ok?

travie

If the bacteria goes too long without an ammonia source, it will die off, which will result in wasting your time.

Edit: If you put old filter media in your new tank, I would put a few fish in your new tank right away so the bacteria has an ammonia source. The fish should be fine since the tank will have instantly cycled.

ba-dabing

Well, I put in another 3 gallons of water this morning and I am thinking the ammonia in that will help the cycle along?

I'm going to the LFS tomorrow after I get paid to buy a proper test kit , a thermometer, and some gravel.

SereneReyn

might want to toss in a pinch of fish food or something too, jic...

ba-dabing

Thanks Serene ... I forgot about that. I'll do that tonight.

ba-dabing

OK ! Got the digital thermometer set up and brought home the API Master test kit for the water. I'm rinsing the gravel now.

Here are my readings :

Temp = 74.4*F (The Fishlore site says Platys like between 65*F and 78*F)

pH - >7.6
High pH - 7.9
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
nitrate - 20

Keep in mind -
a) It's not been a week yet
b) I put in some gravel from the old tank plus the media cartridge (and I sprinkled in some fish food last night)

Do you think it's safe to start moving in some fish?

SereneReyn

i think it's fine, personally... i'd just get a few at first tho, and continue testing to make sure it stays stable (and keep up on water changes, as appropriate).

ba-dabing

OK got the gravel in there and put in all the decorations. I added 3 male platys this morning and so far so good.

I'm going to clean out the old 10 gallon real good one more time and add 3 corydoras catfish in there for a few weeks then introduce them to the 20 gal tank.

ba-dabing

Added some pics

Blub

FL CommunityFans

Or Jullis, if you can find them! They stay uber small also

ba-dabing

Thanks Hatchet, I couldn't have done it without the help and suggestions from you guys.

I went to the LFS and they didn't have any pandas or leopards ( or jullis), all they had were the bronzes.

I spoke to the "fish guy" and he didn't recommend I bring any fish home right now. He's not convinced the tank is fully cycled. I wasn't going to push the issue since they didn't have what I wanted anyway.

I brought my daughter along and she fell in love with the guppies, especially the Lyre Tail Guppies.
Time for me to go look those up ! LOL

COBettaCouple

Gups would go well with Platys. It's best to add just a few fish at a time, maybe once a week when stocking so you don't suddenly overload the biofilter and break the cycle. I'd do some water changes to work on getting the nitrates to 10 or less but the tank does sound cycled.

ba-dabing

Gaaa !

I got up this morning and tested the water :

ph >7.6
High pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40-80 !!

Should I do a water change? 25% ?

SereneReyn

yes.

Blub

COBettaCouple

I'd do 50% water changes today and for the next 2 days, then see where the nitrates is at 1 day after the 3rd water change.

ba-dabing

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I was all set to do a 50% water change with the new gravel vac I bought. The kind that hooks up to the sink. Well, it got the water out ok but we couldn't figure out how to reverse it to put the water back in. While we were figuring that out we sucked out another 25% of the water !

I was putting the water back in with a 3 gallon jug and then my partner figured out the company who makes this gravel vac made a last minute modification and there's a screw you have to unscrew to get the reverse process to happen.

Poor fish! I'm ready to cry *wipes a tear*

ba-dabing

OK, now with 75% of the water changed and tap water in there now... did I screw things up?


WWWAaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! I need a tissue !

COBettaCouple

You have untreated tap water in the tank? All tap water has to be treated to remove the chlorine & chloramines.

MissMTS

Make sure that you have a good water conditioner such as API Stress Coat or Amquel Plus. I would add fish to the tank soon so that the bacteria doesn't die off.

ba-dabing

CoBetta - I put this stuff called Dechlor in the tank after I added the tap water in. The guy at the LFS said it's what they use in their tanks because they gravel vac and fill with an extension hose also.

NewbieFishLover -- There are already 3 platys in the tank so I think they will help with the bacteria.

Now that it's been a day, I guess this goes on my "when I was a newbie" list?
LOL

Blub

ba-dabing

Did a Nitrate reading tonight and it's back down to 10 ppm so I did a 25% water change this time. Hopefully I'm going in the right direction with the Nitrate readings

Blub