Tank setup question...

[Kwhite]

First, thanks to everyone who has given advice previously about all my fish problems, and about my tetra tank mate questions.

I'm almost ready to set my 25 gallon back up, just waiting for the stand to be finished. I just have a couple of questions for y'all:

1. The tank has been sitting without water but with gravel and everything still inside for a while. We had ich just prior to having to drain it. Should I do anything special besides a good rinse to the stuff before filling it back up?

2. I an to run to tank a while before stocking it back up, but don't I need an ammonia source to cycle it? My 10g is unavoidably overstocked with my pleco, Chinese algae eater, and a black fin tetra. I was thinking maybe I should go ahead and move the pleco over to the big tank when I set it back up. This would ease the strain on my water in the 10g and get the big tank on the right track. At least that's what I'm thinking.......am I way off? What do you all think? The plan I have formulating in my head is to rinse tank and contents, fill with water, add the water conditioner, a moss ball, and maybe some salt. When the water gets up to temp, add the pleco and then let it run for a couple weeks before even thinking of moving the tetra and other algae eater back over, then once I move them I can get my tetra a few friends to put in the 10 gal for a couple of weeks to make sure they are healthy before putting them in the 25g.

Let me know if my plan is flawed.

Just a note, the parameters of my water in the 10g have been fine except for higher nitrates. I was thinking that might be due to being overstocked and have been trying to get it down with water changes. The high ammonia and nitrite problems I was having seem to have resolved.

Thanks!

 

[librarygirl]

How long has the tank been sitting without fish since the Ich? Depending on how long it's been sitting you could just rinse everything really well with vinegar and water or a mild bleach solution, then rinse a few times with dechlorinated water and let air dry.

As for the fish, I'd just move the filter on the 10 gal over to the 25 gal and run it with the new filter. This should keep it cycled for the fish you have now since you're using the same filter from the tank they are currently in (or if there's room in the new filter, just take the media from the 10 gal filter and put it inside the 25 gal's filter). So, clean the tank well, fill it up with dechlorinated water, let it come up to temp and run the 25's filter on it then when you're ready to move the fish, move the 10 gal filter over and then move the fish over. Test the tank daily for ammonia, etc in case there are any temporary spikes.

What kind of pleco is it and how large is it now? If it's a Common, long-term it will need a much larger tank. Also the CAE will become very destructive and aggressive as it grows and it can grow to a very large size (10") so you may need to do some long-term planning. I'd add more tetras too once the tank is set up and stabilized.