so my question.....

[d1anonly22]

is, i have a ten gallon tank that has a fifty gallon water heater, a twenty gallon filter, with a fifteen gallon airstone. it all works fine for that tank but i wanna start my 55 gallon up and thats all the equipment i have so far, now im going to buy the proper stuff when i have the money but will that stuff work in there for now?

 

[Bigfoot1030]

The heater is too small for the 55 gallon. What are you doing for filtration??

 

[fisch]

Do you mean 50 watt heater or a heater rated for 50 gallons. Either way that should get you through the summer provided you aren't doing huge water changes with cold water. Too much heat is usually the problem for central valley.
You'll need to upgrade your filter though that provides more flow.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I would say it all depends. You definitely need a right size filter for the tank as well as what you intend to stock it with. My tank maintains 76-80F with no heater. Right now I'm running a UGF w/power heads that maintained 76, then I added a canister that brought it up to 80, as soon as that is established I'll pull the UGF and then may need to add the heater.

 

[d1anonly22]

i mean a water heater that supports up to 60 gallons it said on the box, and all i have for filtration right now is the twenty gallon filter. i know i need better stuff but right now thats what i got. im going to get a filter thats maid for a 90 gallon tank, two water heaters that are for 50 gallon tanks and a 50 gallon airstone. i am eventually going to put my jack dempseys and african cichlids in there, but for now i want to put my 12 molly fry, 2 dempsey fry and four mystery snails in there. the fry are all still tiny even the dempsey fry.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

save yourself the time and just buy this... its 55 dollars... a dollar a gallon for you lol
EMPEROR 400 FISH AQUARIUM FILTER. NEW! - eBay (item 270380054071 end time May-01-09 20:02:13 PDT)

 

[d1anonly22]

well, i just need to know, if i put the 55 gallon water heater, the 20 gallon filter, and the 15 gallon airstone all in the 55 gallon tank, will my 12 molly fry, 2 dempsey fry, and 4 mystery snails survive.

 

[Aries]

Well, In my opinion I wouldn't believe that the filter would keep the water clean enough, but then again those are fry...so less poop, but you need to make sure your bacteria is established for the switch and I would assume the filter size for such small fish as they are won't matter as long as the bacateria is established and you have air bubbles in the tank. Like you are saying, you will need to upgrade equipment for the larger fish. I would test it out. Do you have a therm? If you do set the tank up and watch and see what the temp is with that lower wattage heater for that big tank, if it's not cutting it. I would fork it out to buy a better heater, fry are very sensitive to low water temps and any sort of changes...So, make sure the tank is cycled before dumping them into a new home.

 

[d1anonly22]

well the heater said its for up to 60 gallons, i had it in my ten gallon because thats all i had for the fry.

 

[gzeiger]

Like I said last night, my opinion is that the urban legend about a tank requiring 5x/hour water turnover is based on the assumption, usually well founded, that the tank will be stocked to a certain level (all the fish that will fit). If your filter is cycled and has demonstrated its ability to remove all the waste produced by your fry, the same filter should still be adequate for the same fish in a larger tank.

Surely there's some limit to that, but a 55 gallon tank isn't so much larger than the 20 that I would expect trouble. The only problem you really could have is an area of the tank that wasn't receiving circulation. I think if you place the filter 2/3 or 3/4 of the way toward one end of the tank and place the airstone at the other end you'll have enough water movement to prevent formation of a stagnant area with ammonia.

 

[Aries]

Like I said last night, my opinion is that the urban legend about a tank requiring 5x/hour water turnover is based on the assumption, usually well founded, that the tank will be stocked to a certain level (all the fish that will fit). If your filter is cycled and has demonstrated its ability to remove all the waste produced by your fry, the same filter should still be adequate for the same fish in a larger tank.

Surely there's some limit to that, but a 55 gallon tank isn't so much larger than the 20 that I would expect trouble. The only problem you really could have is an area of the tank that wasn't receiving circulation. I think if you place the filter 2/3 or 3/4 of the way toward one end of the tank and place the airstone at the other end you'll have enough water movement to prevent formation of a stagnant area with ammonia.

agrreeee :] love the whole movement of the filter, def. something I would do before going to buy a whole new and bigger (more $$) fliter