Firecracker

bringing the total up to 3 + the 10 gal hospital tank. haha

Anyway, picked up a 55gal with everything including stand for $125, so that seems like a pretty good deal. Not sure what we're going to put in it--cichlids maybe? Anyway, we have time to decide while it cycles.

I was thinking about floating the old biowheel from the 30gal + transferring some water across. How much will that speed up the cycle, do you think?

sirdarksol

Is there any media in the 30g other than the biowheel? If so, I would suggest moving that to the new tank and buying new stuff for the 30g. Having the media in the middle of the flow in the filter will speed things up more.
You would be able to add fish within a week if you did this.

The water won't help all that much, as the nitrifying bacteria tends to not be free-floating, but anything solid you can put in the tank, especially in the filter, would be great.

Firecracker

Oh, yes, the filter in the 30gal needs to be changed anyway so we can put it inside the new one. The filter isn't the exact same size to fit in the slots in the new filters, but it will sit inside the thingy anyway so it will still be in the water flow.

Thanks! Fish in a week would be cool. But we don't really know what we want ... We were thinking of a cichlid tank, but there are so many other cool fish too. I've always liked angels and silver dollars.

sirdarksol

As long as you keep feeding the tank (ammonia, fish food, anything to keep the nitrogen level up), the nitrifying bacteria will hold out until you make a decision, so don't feel rushed.

Firecracker

We haven't even decided on a decor yet. Right now we have a hodgepodge of stuff that doesn't match.

Firecracker

Here is first attempt. It doesn't seem to flow very well for me, but my fiance spent a LOT of time arranging those rocks.

sirdarksol

It's a neat start.
I really think that the only problem is that it is too close to symmetrical. It looks like symmetry that's been messed up by the things at the ends, rather than natural asymmetry. A tiny bit of rearranging may be all that's needed.

Narcicius

good buy and good luck with the decor.

Firecracker

I'm envisioning one of those mats I was asking about used to create a slope with rocks tumbling off the raised end ... maybe that's a little too complicated, lol.

If we get cichlids, which is sort of our #1 choice right now, then we can't plant it so we'll have to make it pretty some other way. I still think we need some larger rocks or other structures in there because to me it looks too empty and not in a neat minimalist way.

The fake root thingy came with it, and when I saw the glass blobs I had to have them. The slate was really cool too. So maybe we will end up having to get rid of one of those three elements because they don't really work well together.

We need a background, too.

Firecracker

Well, we got some of the decision making done anyway ... We decided that since this tank has SO much light that plants will really thrive, so we're going to go ahead and plant it and not get cichlids.