Newbie set up questions

Hi! So we’ve been working on a 40 gallon breeder set up for most of the year. Collecting pieces here and there at a good price, doing mass amounts of fish research, and building a cabinet. Our final coat should finish drying on the stand this weekend so we’re hoping to start putting the tank in next week. I do still have a handful of questions though.

First, in some of the books we checked out of the library, they say to place the tank on a foam mat. This isn’t something I see mentioned in most newer books, nor have I ever seen any kind of matting while browsing fish shops. Is this important? And where do I find it?

Second, we’re hoping to transfer plants as well as fish from our ten gallon, but we have a noticeable amount of hitchhiker snails that are the bane of my existence right now. Is there anything I can treat the plants with before placing them in the new tank that won’t harm any snails we choose to have down the road?

Third, at this point, I’m a bit confused on the fish in/fish out cycle at this point. We’d been planning fishless, but some of the info I’ve seen on these boards was unclear. We have four platys that will be moving over, and I’ve crammed an extra sponge into our filter to seed the new filter with. Is this a situation where I move the material and the fish together, or do I still cycle the new tank and count the old sponge as a boost?

Fourth, (I know, I’m sorry!) is a single Current USA Satellite LED light enough for my tank?

Thanks!

 

Look at my 40 breeder build! It's in my signature, some of your questions may be answered. I have a foam between my 40 breeder and stand but that is due to the fact my stand isn't level thus the 40 breeder would be putting pressure on different parts of the stand instead of on the actual support. If your stand is level I suggest not putting foam. If you use a level that would help. Before I filled my tank my tank wasn't leveled but after I filled it it was almost perfectly leveled. You can find the foam at the insulation section of HomeDepot or Lowes.
What kind of snails? I tried to get as many of my Malaysian trumpet snails from my 20 gallon and dumped it into my 40. Malaysian trumpet snails are really good for sanded substrate. I threw away though the pond snails from my 10 gallon since pond snails are mainly just pests unless your using them as feeders for like a puffer. For the snails I would suggest rinsing each plant under water and try to scrub it (but not too hard).
As for cycling your tank, do you have an API testing kit? What kind of filter are you running? I suggest moving the filter you have now into the 40 breeder to seed the new filter. Depening on the filter you can use the filter media from the old and add it to your new. I have AquaClear filters and this part was a breeze. The sponges is usually not where the BB live on, the sponge is for mechanical filtration. It is normally suggested to have both your new and old filter running however if you can you can seed the filter directly by putting the media from the old into the new. Again the way it is done depends on the filter. With most HOBs you will have to run both filters however with AquaClear since you have a bag full of media where the BB stays you can either run both and add some of the biomax from the old filter to the new filter bag or you can just add the whole bag on top of the new. If you have AquaClear filter you should take out the activated carbon bag since you don't need it. Another thing for your filter the gph should be a minimum of 360 (you want 9x the gph of the size of the tank). I have an AC 110 and a AC 50 on my 40 breeder
As for lights, what kind of plants are you trying to grow? I believe usually for really good growth you would get 2 lights. I have a Finnex Stingray on my 40 breeder. If you want to see how it looks check my build. I have pictures of what my tank looks like.

 

Thanks! That's really helpful! I looked through your build and will definitely be following that! We'll break out the levels once the stand is in place and see how we did. And I'm seriously starting to think I need to do my shopping at the hardware store instead of the fish stores!

As for our snails, based on Googling they are either pond snails or bladder snails - both terms seemed to be used regularly. And they are a real pest. Every time I think I've pulled them all out, they show back up in a few days. That's why I'm worried about eggs on the plants.

We do use the API kit, and we've got an Aquaclear 20 on the 10 gallon with sponge, bio balls, and floss. We'll be running 2 AC 70s on the 40 gallon.

We'd like to move our Amazon Swords and Anubias over. After that, we were hoping to add Java Fern, Wisteria, and Microsword. Maybe another Anubias.

 

Where did you buy your equipment? I suggest Amazon if you can order online. Amazon prices are way cheaper then the ones in the pet stores.
As for the snails I suggest washing your plants. Then add the plants in your 40 breeder. In a few weeks or so see if you are over runned by snails. If you do see tons of snails then I suggest getting Assassin Snails. AS as their name implies eat other snails for a living. Plus AS don't really breed as easily.
As for the filters I suggest as quickly as you can set up your aquarium. The start running your filters. Thank goodness you use ACs since they are the best and very easy to seed when it comes starting a new tank. There are 2 things you can do! You can either run the AC 20 on the 40 breeder or you can take half of the bio max from the AC 20 and add it to each AC 70 bag of biomax that way each filter already has some BB. It would just take time for the BB to populate the new bag.
What kind of substrate are you using? For my 40 breeder if you saw my thread I used a mix of Eco-Complete and Pool filter sand.
As for the plants I suggest putting the Amazon swords in the corner of the tank since they will take up a lot of space after 1-2 years depending on how fast they grow. I also have 2 amazon swords in my tank. Seeing your plants you can try to see if your light is good. After a few months if you don't see much or not the progress that you want you can either by a stronger light or just buy the same kind. I think that that is what I might do. Either my birthday or next summer I might try to get a better light! (I run a Finnex Stingray right now)

 

Again, thanks! I'll look into the Assassin Snails. Can they easily be removed from the tank once the pest snails are gone? I'd be happy to set up another small tank for them, but I do want to have either Mystery or Nerite snails down the road and the "assassin" name suggests an incompatibility! Alternatively, could I add a couple to the 10 gallon now? Would that be too small for them?

Would it work to move my AC 20 to the 40 gallon in place of one of the AC 70s, run the tank that way for a couple of weeks and then swap it out for the other 70?

We're doing a large sand patch in the middle front since we're planning on KuhlI Loaches, and then doing Eco-Complete to the sides and back to fill in with plants. I do think we'll try to run it with one light for a while. So far both the Sword and Anubias have done amazingly well with the built in hood LED the tank came with.

Also, is there an air pump you can recommend that could drive an air stone for the 40 gallon and a sponge filter in a fry/invert tank? I know that you can use splitters to run off multiple lines, but I'm not sure what size/power I should be looking at.

 

Yes Assassin snails are small but they will be easily spotted if you look around your tank. I would recommend only 1-3 assassin snails due to the fact that it might take a bit more time but in the end you won't have to feed them as much. Don't put any other snails in the tank with them such as nerites or mystery snails. Assassin snails will kill all kinds of snails. They don't spare anyone!

For your filter you could just replace one of the AC 70 however are you planning on keeping the AC 20? If you are then I suggest to take about 2/3 of the biomax from your AC 20 and put it in the bag of the AC 70. The seeding will be much faster since the BB from the AC 20 will directly be in contact with new media thus the BB will start to grow on the new one. I'm not sure if I said this but for ACs you don't need the activated carbon. Save that for later when ever you have to put medicine or your water is really cloudy. I suggest replacing the activated carbon with another bag of biomax that way you have more BB. Thus the more BB you have the more ammonia it can process and it can turn it quickly to nitrite then nitrates which then will become beneficial for the plants.

SO if you saw my thread I had the similar setup as you. Look at my pictures! In the corners I have Eco-Complete and then in the front and middle I have PFS. If you haven't gotten your substrate yet here is what you need to have at least 2 inches of substrate! You will need 2 bags of 20lb Eco-Complete and a bag of 50lb PFS. If you want more than 2 inches then get another bag of Eco-Complete!

As for the air pump I suggest a Tetra whisper 40 gal. Right now I am using a fusion quiet power since I am only running one line on to my Marina Breeding/Holding box. Before when I had my 10 gallon and 20 gallon I had a Whisper 60 since I had about 5 lines going to sponge filters and air stones. If you have the money then go for a bigger airpump.

 

Great! We'll add that pump to the shopping list.

For the filters, we set it up with sponge, BB, and floss based off research, but we never figured out what the floss was supposed to do. Would you recommend we take out the floss and add more BB?

 

Check the prices on amazon .com . I bought a tetra whisper 40 air pump form there a couple of weeks ago but we had a 10.00 coupon from amazon prime and the pump was on sale new and it came out to be a ridiculously priced plus the free shipping . they were 40 % off and it came out about 2 dollars. See if they are still on sale and if you have prime check your e mails? Alison

 

Sadly, it looks like that sale is over. They're still cheaper than I was expecting though!

 

Floss is for mechanical filtration while media (the cyramic rings, balls, etc) are for biological filtration which is the BB. It really depends on what you want. However in a tank unless you have a lot of poop and debris everywhere biological is better since the BB is what helps with the cycle of the tank. I believe floss helps make the water clearer since its able to trap small particles.

 

Maybe we'll have to play with that in the large tank then. Since we ended up with 4 platys instead of the planned for 3, I've always felt like we were running the 10 gallon a little full. But we're trying to understock the 40 gallon a bit.