CYCLING A NEW TANK

[capper]

I've posted before on this matter but I'll try again! We have 1 cycled tank (57 liters) with 1 guppy, 1 platy, 5 african lampeyes, 6 glowlight tetras, 12 cardinal tetras, 5 rummy nose tetras, and 3 corydoras catfish (2 different species of them). In addition, we have 3 uncycled tanks, a 157 liter tank, a 30X30X25cm tank, and a 20X20X20cm tank.

First, since we are overstocked in our 57-liter tank, which fish should we move -- and to which tank. Second, what do you recommend for cycling all 3of these tanks?

 

[Seleya]

I don't remember the actual gallonage of these tanks (I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's way more helpful to post the tanks in gallons or liters!) so recommending what to put in them (two of them are quite small tanks) is difficult and, as I converted these tanks into gallons at least 3 times for you....

As for cycling them, since you have a cycled tank and need to move fish over to other tanks, your first step is to get filters appropriate for each size tank and put them all on the 57 (if they fit). I would start with the largest tank, decide what is moving over, cycle the filter on the 57 liter tank for a month, then shift over stock you already have with the filters. Keep a close eye on the parameters for a few weeks after the move. You can also put some gravel in a pantyhose leg for added biofilter boost, but it probably isn't necessary.

The rummynoses are probably the most demanding of good water quality, with the cardinals and lampeyes following. The smallest tank, I don't believe we ever suggested any of your fish belong in -- it's just so small.

More information would make suggestions easier.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Have you read the stickies on fishless cycling? You could do that with any decent size tank (5g and up... I'm not sure on the metric conversions for the size of your tanks). Since you've already got a cycled tank, you can speed that up (or even skip it if you stock slowly or it is a considerably smaller tank) by using the used filter media/cartridge from your established tank when you set up a new one... it'll bring lots of bacteria with it.

For splitting up the fish... keep your tetra schools together, not 6 cardinals here and 6 there. I get that 57 liters=15g. Option 1: Leave the cardinals, rummy noses, and cories. Glowlights *or* lampeyes to one of the smaller tanks (I'm assuming both small ones to be under 10g?) or both to the bigger tank. The guppy and platy can stay or go anywhere. Option 2: cardinals to the big tank, leave everyone else. Option 3: Move the cories to the bigger tank and get some more of them. Move 2 of the smaller schools, 1 per small tank or both to the big tank.

I'm sure there are more options as well, these are just the ones that occur to me. What type of set up do you want in the big tank? Peaceful community like what you've got now, or more semi-aggressive? If you move one or both of the small schools to a smaller tank, you've got lots of room to play around with in the big tank.

 

[discus4everGrl]

well one things for sure, you don't want to use tetras in the uncycled tanks. I would prolly move the africans to their own tanks,

 

[capper]

The only thing we've done so far is move all 5 of the lampeyes into the big tank. Nothing else so far.

 

[Seleya]

Your tanks are approximately 48, 16, 6 and 2 gallons respectively. (I went rummaging in your old threads since I didn't want to convert from cm - in - gal again) All your fish are in the 16 now which as you say is extremely overstocked.

The 2 should be reserved for quarantine only -- there's not much you can do with it regularly anyways, unless you wanted a betta or some shrimp (which might be very cool and I would imagine you could get some nice varieties being in Japan)

The 6 could handle the small school of glowlights or a few guppies or platies. Which lampeyes do you have? Aplocheilichthys macropthalmus? They can be kept in smaller aquaria so they might work in the 6 alone as well.

The cardinals and rummys would likely do best in the larger tank, but keep in mind they do better in established tanks than ones freshly cycling. If you seed the largest tank's filter first, or borrow media from the filter currently on the 16 as well as some gravel, you could probaly shift them over pretty safely, just watch your parameters closely and do water changes as needed.

Once you do that, you can decide what else to do with your tanks.

The cories can go anywhere except the 2. They like to be in larger numbers (they school in the thousands++ in the wild) so one of the larger tanks would be preferable so you could increase that shoal. Try to round out the two species you have, I've always found they tend to school more tightly with similar individuals.

 

[capper]

So far, the Lampeyes seem to be doing well in the big 48g tank. Small fish in a big pond! I want to move the Platy in there with them too. The only thing holding me back is that the Platy seems to have a friendly tankmate in the Guppy. Therefore, I have been hesitant to separate them. Yes, I could also move the Guppy, however, I don't have confidence in her health in the new uncycled tank as I do in the Lampeyes and Platy.

Last night, I took the filter wool from my established 16g tank and squeezed it out into the new 48g tank. Is it better to squeeze the established filter wool into the new aquarium directly or rather to squeeze it into the new filter?

Also, yes, I am considering a Beta (Siamese Fighter) for our 2g tank. However, are they strong fish capable of cycling a new tank? I would suspect not. Should I take the filter from our 6g and start operating it in our established 16g? It is a small underwater filter that sticks to the glass inside the tank. Therefore this would be an easy process.

 

[Seleya]

Put the 6 g filter on the 16 for at least a month. If you put a 'cycled' filter on a tank, stock lightly and test regularly you don't need to worry about cycles within reason. A betta should be fine so long as you're patient and do it right.

I'm not much of a believer in 'squeezing' but if thats how you choose to do it, do it as directly on the new filter as possible -- don't make the bacteria work too hard to get where they need to be. I'd be more inclined to pop some of your filter floss from the 16's filter into the 48's filter -- it's more direct, more effective imo, and you're shifting over stock so moving over some media is no biggie. I've taken a sponge from one established tank and put it into another filter to get a tank going without any problems in the original tank -- quite honestly, I do it pretty regularly.

 

[capper]

Great info. Seleya, thanx. In regards to taking the filter "wool" from the established filter and moving it into the new filter, wouldn't that be jeopardizing the existing cycled tank? I keep hearing never to change your filter materials with new ones. There are 2 wool pads in my 16g tank filter. If I was to take only one of them out, move it into another filter and replace it with a new pad, would that be a safe move?

We need to find some good algae eaters as we seem to have trouble with it in both of our big tanks. At a major pet shop in Tokyo, they told us that the Plecos (Corydoras) are algae eaters. You guys are telling me otherwise! I tend to believe you guys more. What fish will gobble down the algae???

 

[cybersymes]

mmmmm...plec*s are algae eaters...
i have one and he's a demon for the stuff...

i have six trilineas corydoras[leopard cories] too...
they are constantly 'cascading' up and down the glass...
not a spot of algae in sight...

 

[FroggyFox]

Corydoras do not eat algae, Corydoras are not plecos...you were given bad information. Corydoras are bottom feeders and will clean up extra food, but they need to be fed also. Plecos are usually great for eating algae...but most types get very large so for smaller tanks otocinclus are good. The tank needs to be well established to try and house an otto though, need to have at least a little buildup of algae already and the tank should definitely be cycled. If you have a small tank that you just want to prevent algae you could try using an apple snail (mystery snail) they dont do very well with catching up on a tank that already has algae, but they do a good job (IME) keeping a tank's glass free of algae. I suppose the first thing you need to do is make sure you have corydoras and not plecos...if you have two plecos then you can seperate them into two different tanks and hope they work on the algae....however they should be kept in cycled tanks also, so I wouldn't move them until the tank they're going to is cycled.

You should be fine replacing one of the two pads in your 16 filter and moving one of those pads to another tank...although squeezing the filter cartridge over the new filter has also worked well for me in the past.

 

[cybersymes]

Corydoras do not eat algae, Corydoras are not plecos...you were given bad information. ......

this first bit had me confused...i thought they were different dudes...
[thus speaks me...the perpetual noob ]

You should be fine replacing one of the two pads in your 16 filter and moving one of those pads to another tank...although squeezing the filter cartridge over the new filter has also worked well for me in the past.

i have squeezed too...worked fine...

 

[Seleya]

<G> then squeeze away.

Replacing one of the wools should be fine -- sooner or later they will eventually fall apart and will need replacing, you just don't want to replace them any more than necessary. (and definitely not both at the same time!) Since you're also removing some bioload, it should be especially safe in your case.

When you're at the fish store, get the scientific name of the fish you're interested in, so you can be sure what you're getting is what you want. Some folks interchange names left and right and many fish have multiple names and multiple names can apply to multiple fish -- the only universally accepted names are the scientific ones (and they're constantly reclassifying fish!)