Need help- Tank too full

[countryfan05]

In about a year and a half I will be moving and getting a 75-90 gallon in my new house but until then I rent, so I need to stay small. I have a 26 gallon with 36 fish and two frogs. I know it is a lot but I get lots of opinions on the fish load and some say it is fine and some don't . UGGH. My fish tend to hide so I kept getting more. The tank is in a room not traveled much so they are skiddish. So here is what I think is my only option - buy an additional (economy) 20 gallon and split fish to get me thru the next year to year and a half. So I am going to get a 20 gallon with an aquaclear filter for now. I need two suggestions? What type of light should I get for live plants (I will move some out of my 26g), how do I avoid the cycling process, if I need to add fish (at least angels) today. Biospira? Water from tank? It will be virtually impossible to take gravel from this tank as I have lots of plants. And three (okay I said two questions, sorry) how should I divide the fish. Should I just put the angels in the new tank (they are getting bigger that is why I am doing this) or should I take more? This is what I have:

4 cories, 2 kuhli's, 2 frosgs, 2 dwarf sunset gouramis, 4 angels, 3 redfin tetras, 1 black skirt tetra, 6 red eye tetras, 7 cardinal tetras, 1 algae eater, 5 zebra danios. I am going to the fish store today so any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[joannde]

Hi - you're right to split that fishload. The angles will love the 75 - 90 gallon you're going to get - they're going to get too big for the 26 soon.

When you say "algae eater" do you know what kind ? Is it a pleco ? Depending upon the type that will get fairly hugh.

As for cycling the new tank, take some filter media out of the current tank and use it to seed the new filter. If it doesn't fit just cut it to size - you might want to put half in the new tank and leave half in the older tank. Just watch for ammonia and nitrites and keep them below .5ppm (do water changes if it goes above that).

For the lights, it really depends upon what type of plants you want. Low light plants do ok with 1wpg but you can go as high as 2wpg (still low light) before you need to worry about CO2 injection.

As for which fish to move, you should make that call on the dimensions of the tanks. I'm not sure what the dimensions of a 26G are - if its the same footprint as the 20 but higher than I'd leave the angels in there and move 2 schools of the tetras and the danios to the 20. Just try and split the bioload proportional to the 20/26 ratio.

HTH

 

[Cinder]

I agree with joannde on everything. The Angels sound like they are already getting too big for the 29 gln. please don't move even two of them to the 20 gln. (I understand your desire to do this but a 20 gln. is too small for two Angels.)
I'm assuming you're going to the fish store to get the aquarium and not more fish. I would suggest you check out craigslist.org. Find Maryland and you should be able to find an aquarium for much cheaper than a fish store.
Good luck.