2 tanks, 1 stand...

OK. So I was denied permission by my landlord to set up my 75G tank in my 2nd floor apartment. Sucks to be me. My fish definitely need the space, so the 75 is going to have to go in the exact same space and on the exact same stand as the 37 and the 10, which is where they live now (yes, I know it's much too small, that's why I'm upgrading, duh).

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how exactly to accomplish this. This is what I've come up with, but I'd like some feedback from everybody on how they think this'll work, or if they have any better suggestions.

I'd really like to be able to give the 75 time to cycle properly, but unfortunately, I can't be sure the floor will hold the 75, the 37, AND the stand AND the desk next to the stand. So it's going to have to be a quick job.

My plan:
Thursday:

Fast all the fish

Friday night:

1) Scape out all my plastic airline tubing in the 75, and rinse the substrate (natural sand with a little fluorite mixed in) very well.

2) take as much water out of the 37 as I can. Save the first (and cleanest) several bucket fulls for the fish, who will spend a very miserable weekend in a plastic bin on the floor, then put the rest in the bath tub (plugged up).

3) put the fish and one of the two filters in the plastic bin with the cleanish water, and all their fake plants (they float and I figure the cover will help them be less freaked).

4) Move the 37 to the desk, and put the 75 (completely empty except for all the airline tubing) on the stand.

5) Add the substrate to the 75, as well as some pieces of driftwood, the other filter from the 37, some stockings full of gravel from the 37, the heater, and the canister filter.

6) Bring the water from the bath tub and put it in the 75, then bring it up to 2/3 full with clean water fixed with API Stress-Coat (I wouldn't but there's a LOT of chlorine in the water). My plan for this: use the stress coat to get rid of the chlorine, but it shouldn't bother the ammonia (in the dirty water) I'd be using as TSS food.

Saturday:

7) worry.

8) 50% water change in my fishy-bin; dirty water --> 75

9) Check parameters in the 75, just to see

10) If the sand has settled, turn on the filters in the 75.

11) Break down and clean the 37

12) Worry.

Sunday

13) 36 hours after water has been put into the tank, add a huge bottle of TSS (I know I only need to wait 24 hours, but I want to add my fish during the day so that I will be able to observe them and not pull an all nighter).

14) I will then wait 2 hours (as recommended by Tetra ) before adding my fish. I will add everybody all at once so that nobody is stuck in the tiny bin for too long, and give them the filter from their bin.

16) Keep fishy-bin set up with a smaller filter as a just-in-case hospital tank; I'll keep this set up until my parameters say the tank is fully cycled and balanced.

15) Check parameters every day, worry constantly, keep a close eye on everybody, and feed the plec plenty of veggies and algae wafers since there won't be any real algae in the tank for quite some time.

Any additions/changes, guys?

 

Why are you worried about saving the remaining (I'm going to guess) about 20gal? You could end up with a lot more problems from the bathtub due to residual soaps and other cleaning products you or previous tenants could have used.

Other than that I think you idea would work. I would only be concerned about the ability of the "stand" that you are using to carry the increased load from the weight of the approx 50 gal of water and substrate to the additional 25gal of water and associated substrate.

 

It's actually a 75G tank stand (bought it at petsmart about 18 months ago with the intent to upgrade). I'm not sure what you mean about the 50G water to additional 25G water, do you mean the increase in weight as I fill the tank? I'm pretty sure it should hold it once it's full, though.

The bathtub is a good point :-/ I should probably just dump most of the water and try to keep as much of the icky water as I can in buckets to throw in to feed the TSS. I wanted to change as little water as possible, so that the parameter shift wouldn't be too severe and make anybody sick, but I guess the shift is inevitable.

 

From my understanding the water is not what holds most of your beneficial bacteria. Your filter media, gravel, and decor house the most.

 

Cletus is right. Drain all that water in the bath tub. That scares the heck outta me just thinking about it! Don't use it. You have more than enough BB in your decor, substrate and especially the filter media. Plus TSS.

I would fill the tank with new water and simply acclimate them. You can use bags if you have some or drip method if you can do that too.

 

Cletus is right on on that one.

My comments to the extra were from not knowing what stand you had. I thought you had either some kind of home made stand or something else. If it is set for a 75gal tank then your all set.

 

From my understanding the water is not what holds most of your beneficial bacteria. Your filter media, gravel, and decor house the most.

That is correct. There is no bacteria in the water. There is no need to save any of the water. If the new water chemistry is different than what the tank currently is, then just acclimate the fish to the new water. If they are the same, then just dump the fish in.


The floor shouldn't have any trouble holding the weight of it all, if it's up to code. I live in a second floor apartment, but even before that my tanks have always been on the second floor.

 

I can see the POSSIBLE and I stress possible but unlikely problem of the water holding the "food" part for the bacteria, but with the addition of the TSS you should be ok. If you haven't bought the TSS yet I wouldnt worry about the big bottle too much the small one should do you fine, actually even further thinking would be that your bacteria already can handle the bio load of the fish you have now so it should be fine having the bigger tank.

 

I don't know why you would be using TSS. Your tanks are cycled, right??


And.....how are you putting the 75 on the 37 stand???

 

I don't know why you would be using TSS. Your tanks are cycled, right??


And.....how are you putting the 75 on the 37 stand???

see above in the reply to me, its actually a 75 stand that she has the 37 on

 

see above in the reply to me, its actually a 75 stand that she has the 37 on

Oh, then my question is how do you have the 37 on a 75 stand??

 

OK, so I think this can answer everybody's questions:

I know the bacteria don't live in the water; it's the ammonia (food for the bacteria) that I want to preserve. I don't want to starve it out using all new, treated water, and nothing else.

I wanted to add some TSS because part of why I'm upgrading is that the bacteria (and I!) seem to be having trouble managing the amount of waste my fish produce. This has become more of a problem in the last couple months or so. It was a problem a while back, and I bought a second filter, and helped for a while, but the time has come for a REAL solution. I wanted to add some extra bacteria to sort of boost it up. I know this sounds ridiculous but I've noticed that my fish vent quite a bit when they're stressed, and what I'm proposing to do is going to be mighty stressful. I don't want the sudden production of ammonia to overwhelm the BB from the old tank, and cause a humongous nitrite spike before the nitrite can be converted to nitrate (this is going to be rough enough as it is). That and I'd really like to be able to treat with melafix to prevent any stress-induced infections, but as it's a mild antibiotic I'd like to be sure that my bacterial colonies are up to snuff before I go throwing in anything that's going to bother them. I have not bought the TSS yet, but you're probably right, I could probably do with a smaller bottle.

Any clearer?

And no, I'm not attempting to balance a 75 on a 37 stand lol. I feel like that would sort of preclude my worries about a cycle, though...

 

Oh, then my question is how do you have the 37 on a 75 stand??

? I'm confused by your question. The 37G tank has a much smaller footprint than the 75; it fits easily onto the 75G stand.

 

ok I get what your saying about the TSS reasons now.

 

? I'm confused by your question. The 37G tank has a much smaller footprint than the 75; it fits easily onto the 75G stand.

I think he is thinking that the 75 stand Much like mine) just holds the outside edges of the tank. I think your stand is probably more like my 33long stand that is more like a table with an open center area but a larger support section to allow for slight dimensional variation.

 

I know the bacteria don't live in the water; it's the ammonia (food for the bacteria) that I want to preserve. I don't want to starve it out using all new, treated water, and nothing else.

I wanted to add some TSS because part of why I'm upgrading is that the bacteria (and I!) seem to be having trouble managing the amount of waste my fish produce. This has become more of a problem in the last couple months or so. It was a problem a while back, and I bought a second filter, and helped for a while, but the time has come for a REAL solution. I wanted to add some extra bacteria to sort of boost it up. I know this sounds ridiculous but I've noticed that my fish vent quite a bit when they're stressed, and what I'm proposing to do is going to be mighty stressful. I don't want the sudden production of ammonia to overwhelm the BB from the old tank, and cause a humongous nitrite spike before the nitrite can be converted to nitrate (this is going to be rough enough as it is). That and I'd really like to be able to treat with melafix to prevent any stress-induced infections, but as it's a mild antibiotic I'd like to be sure that my bacterial colonies are up to snuff before I go throwing in anything that's going to bother them. I have not bought the TSS yet, but you're probably right, I could probably do with a smaller bottle.

The bacteria is not going to starve because you've used all new water. It takes a long time for that to happen. As soon as the fish are in the tank they are producing more waste. The bacteria is much more resilient than most people think. If you need a bacteria boost than your filtration is woefully lacking.

You have leeway going from a smaller tank to a larger tank, in that there is twice as much water. The bioload isn't going to increase because it's in a larger tank, so if the filtration could handle the job in the 37, it WILL handle it in the 75. The only problem you could face is if the filtration cannot clear the water (GPH) as fast as the ammonia is produced, but again that's just a function of having adequate filtration for a tank that size.


Trust me, you are as over prepared for this as you could possibly be

 

I think he is thinking that the 75 stand Much like mine) just holds the outside edges of the tank. I think your stand is probably more like my 33long stand that is more like a table with an open center area but a larger support section to allow for slight dimensional variation.

There's no open area; it's just like a wooden sort of... idk, a tank stand. It's got a flat table top and shelves and cupboards underneath. It looks almost like a dresser, kind of. Although I do know the kind you're talking about, holding just the outside edges; ROFL! I was SOO confused (why would this tank NOT fit on this stand? It's MUCH smaller... what could he mean?!), he must have been just as confused! lol

@ Jaysee; my filtration IS woefully lacking!! It's just sad! I have 2 PF60s on a 37G tank (that's 660 gph!) and it's just... well, it's time to get serious. It is simply not enough to handle the bio load, so time for an upgrade. I'm planning on using both the PF60s (probably unnecessary but I like the easy activated carbon change as well as the idea of having several different filters just in case something awful happens) in conjunction with the fluval 405 canister I'm saving up for (almost there!) in the 75 for exactly that reason. This will give me 660 HOB gph in addition to the 375 canister gph provided by the 405.

Actually my bioload will be increasing; I will be adding my 10G stock to the 75 as well as my 37G stock. It seems like the extra filtration will come in handy with a plec AND goldfish in a heated tank (increase in metabolism AND poop). But if I don't have to worry about not having food for the bacteria, I will happily dump 90% of their super icky water straight down the drain .

Over prepared is exactly what I wanted to hear . I was petrified I was forgetting something important.

 

405 does 340 GPH I believe. I have one on the 45. But yeah, this is a perfect example that it's not just a matter of GPH. CERTAINLY 660 gph is enough for a 37, but there's more to it. The reason to have a high GPH is not the water turn over itself, but because it represents a certain filter capacity. More mportant than GPH is the volume of biological media the filter holds. Sounds like that's the problem with your filtration system. Are you using the cartridges?? If so that's another problem. Custom media is a must for good filtration systems.

 

I do use the cartridges, but with a bit of my own flavor. Each PF60 has 2 activated carbon cartridges inside, but I also have 2 large sponges inside each filter. I like to be able to change the cartridges when they're no longer active, or when things get a little clogged, and I don't want to have to worry about losing my BB, so I keep the cartridge before the sponge so that it blocks most of the physical goo until it's broken down enough to pass through the floss. It worked fairly well for quite some time, but as my fish have grown, so has their poop. From what you're saying, I'm guessing that the sponges simply can't hold enough bacteria to handle the growing load. This makes perfect sense, and I think my upgrade plan should solve that problem.

Sorry for the misinfo; you're right the 405 does 340GPH (not enough by itself for a 75G when you've got goldies and plecs, imo). My plan for the 405 is to have a stocking over the intake, for a physical barrier to larger bits, then another small layer of mechanical filtration inside, then just fill it all the way up with the ceramic noodle things. My PF60s should provide plenty of active carbon filtration, imo. Hopefully the added volume of biofiltration should help immensely. Because really? fish poop is gross.

 

Hi. I'm hoping someone can answer a quick question for me. I have 2 120 gallon tanks and the typical metal stand. Can I put one on top and the other on the part below it? Or is that too much for the legs to handle?

Thanks,
Dan

 

The tank is most likely only designed to hold one tank on top of the stand, so it may not work.

 

Agreed, depends on what it is designed to hold.

 

I agree, the stand would have to be able to hold at least 2050 pounds.

 

I would love to actually know who builds these metal stands. I've been searching online and can't seem to find any info on them. Anyone got any insight into this?

 

Does it have a brand name on it?

 

Does it have a brand name on it?

Unfortunately it doesn't.

 

Used to be you could not sure how they are made now. Is the angle iron on the bottom the same thickness as that on the top? May be a good idea to ask your local pet store. they often stack there tanks.

 

Used to be you could not sure how they are made now. Is the angle iron on the bottom the same thickness as that on the top? May be a good idea to ask your local pet store. they often stack there tanks.

Yes. Same thickness. Same welds. Looks like it should be able to hold 2 tanks but would love to hear from someone who has done it before.

 

Even if it can hold it, can your floor hold all that weight in such a small area?

 

Even if it can hold it, can your floor hold all that weight in such a small area?

It would be in a basement on cement. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

I mean the only definitive way of knowing is trying. Just don't stock them!

 

Stacking 120 gal tanks on one stand (one you don't know if it's made for two tanks) sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, one that could be expensive if something bad were to happen and ruin one or both tanks. It's a different story for small tanks - sure, try it! But 120 gal tanks are over 1000 lbs each.

 

I agree with the others. Considering the expense you have used to get the tanks, plus what you'll plan to put in there (I'm sure it won't be some common and cheap fish), go ahead and prepare the stand either by getting separate ones or if you really want them stacked on top of each other, then get another stand or foundation of a stand that you know can handle the weight for sure.

 

So there's a bit of an update. I found some metal stand manufacturers that make identical stands with the same size steel as the one I have and they all say that it is indeed designed for 2 tanks. I also spoke to someone at my local aquarium shop and they confirmed it. However, after taking some measurements, I realize I will only have about 3 inches between the top of the tank and the bottom of the top bar. I don't think I will have enough room to perform any maintenance or get in there when I need to. So for now, the dream is over.

 

I wonder if there's a shorter tank with the same footprint?

 

I wonder if there's a shorter tank with the same footprint?

Possibly. But the only reason I considered it was because I got a great deal on the second tank. I might just try to find another stand and rearrange the room.

 

Hello al!

I have a 15 and 10 gallon tank that I will be setting up and I was thinking of I could use two stands for both of them. I seen this before but I'm not sure if one stand can support two tanks.

This tank seems sturdy but states it is for a 20 gallon tank and one 15 and 10 gallon would make 25 gallons.

This stand seems better as it is for 37 gallon tanks. I may be getting greedy here but could I do two 10 gallons tanks and one 15 gallon tank on this stand? Or is this idea headed towards a huge disaster? Just an idea that may not work out. And should the heavier tank go on the bottom of the stand or the top? Any suggestions on double tank stands and links to some products would be much appreciated!

 

I could suggest a DIY setup that would probably be stronger than any premade stands. Cinderblocks and a couple pieces of 3/4" plywood.

 

I did a diy concrete block rack for a 75 gallon and 29g
55 Gallon Tank - Diy Concrete Stand

or diy 2x4 lumber rack stand

 

You could try this, all you need to do is cut some 3/4" plywood to fit (because your tank is smaller that a 20g)

Caitec Bird Toys TitanEzeDouble Aquarium Stand, Two Stands in One, Upper & Lower Levels, Birds, Fish, Small Animals, 20 Gallons, 32-1/2"L x 32"H x 13"W