RightTurnClyde's 29 Gallon Build!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

RightTurnClyde

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Messages
498
Location
Northern California
I've decided to pull the trigger on converting my 10 G to a 29! Here's my plan as of now:

29 Gallon tank (from Petco's current $1 per gallon sale.)

AC 50 filter
Aqueon pro heater 100 watt
Pool Filter Sand substrate
Low tech/low light plants. Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss, Anacharis.

Ideally this will be my fish stock:
1 Silver Molly and 5 Zebra Danios (set free from current 10 gallon prison.)
8-10 Cardinal Tetras
4 or 5 Julii Corydoras
2 RCS

How does all that sound?
 
Sounds like you're going to have a great build! Here are my 2 cents.
1. Your RCS have a decent probability of becoming snack food for the molly.
2. I've found my molly is much happier with a friend or two. Just make sure they are the same sex/ratio is proper (1male:2+female)

post pics when it all comes together :)
 
Hmm... Thanks for the tip. I know she will probably try to eat the babies, but will she nip/tear at a full grown adult RCS? I thought the general rule was that they would not try to eat another fish bigger than their mouth?
 
Well, my personal experience was that even if it didn't fit, if it was close, they tried. I had several males (they are smaller) killed and many females harassed, so I finally had to move them out. You can certainly give it a try, not all fish are the same, RCS are just too expensive in my neck of the woods to lose them like that.
 
Well, my personal experience was that even if it didn't fit, if it was close, they tried. I had several males (they are smaller) killed and many females harassed, so I finally had to move them out. You can certainly give it a try, not all fish are the same, RCS are just too expensive in my neck of the woods to lose them like that.

OK, well shrimp are probably the last thing I'll add, so I won't have to worry for a while. But just out of curiosity, is there another species of shrimp that are maybe a little bigger or "tougher" and wouldn't be at such a risk of being eaten?
 
OK, well shrimp are probably the last thing I'll add, so I won't have to worry for a while. But just out of curiosity, is there another species of shrimp that are maybe a little bigger or "tougher" and wouldn't be at such a risk of being eaten?

Ghost shrimp.

If you throw down some java moss for them to hide in RCS will do fine with platys imho
 
Ghost shrimp.

If you throw down some java moss for them to hide in RCS will do fine with platys imho

+1 to the java moss and Ghost shrimp (ghost are not as fancy, but are cheaper, bigger and hardier)

I also agree that platy fish would be safer with RCS, but Molly not so much. Molly are much bigger than platy and java moss can only do so much.
 
Woohoo! I picked up the new tank, filter, and a new stand today at Petco! I rinsed out the tank and filled it about 1/3 of the way to make sure there were no obvious leaks. So far so good. :dance:

I have the pool filter sand on order to pick up at my local hardware store and a 150 watt Aqueon pro heater ordered from Amazon. (It was only 2 bucks more than the 100 Watt so I figured why not have the extra juice for the winter time?)

Next steps are to put the new stand together and start planning the details of the physical switch.
 
When the time comes for the actual physical switch of the tanks, do I need to worry much about using as much of the water from the old tank as possible?

I'm thinking I'll try to put at least 5 gallons from the old tank in there and then simply move the media from my old filter to the new. I'm hoping for an essentially instant cycle and I can just move my fish right away. Is there a problem with this plan?
 
I usually move 50% of the water, so it's just like I did a big water change. Just my personal preference though.
 
As for an instant cycle - how big is your biological load in your 10 gallon? If it is about the same size, and you are moving all of your media into the new filter, you probably will be ok, at worse you will have a mini-cycle. If it is significantly less, you will for sure have a mini-cycle and you will need to take proper steps as if you were doing a fish-in cycle (lots of water changes!) Why not just test it first? Set up the tank get everything going, stick in the media, dose it with ammonia and wait 24 hours. If the ammonia is all converted to nirtAtes (no nitrites either!) then you are good to go. Do a little water change and call it good. Takes one day. Just an option to think about ;)
 
Due to space considerations and rugrats running around, having both tanks running at the same time is not going to work. The bioload is going to be identical since I'm moving all the fish from the 10 to the 29. It's a fairly heavy load for the 10 gallon (1 Molly and 5 Zebra Danios) and I've had zero ammonia and nitrite for several weeks now.

And since I'm going from a 10 to a 29, a 50% water switch is physically impossible, but I'll put in as much as I can. I've been doing regular 30 - 40% water changes every week, so I'm hoping it's just going to be like a huge water change and won't affect the fish too much.
 
Just got the call that my sand is ready to pickup at my local hardware store! I officially have everything I need now to build out the new tank and make the switch. Aiming to do it on Saturday. I'll be sure to post pics or a video of the final result.
 
Why can't you add all the water from the 10 gal into the 29 gal? I'd still recommend letting another 10 gal gas off for a day or two so you don't shock the fish upon transfer..
 
I'll certainly try to use all 10 from my existing tank, but where would my fish live while I'm doing that? I can only take the water down so far. I can add the rest after I transfer the fish, I suppose.
 
Well, I did it! It was a long project that took me several hours, but it's done! I was able to use most of the water from the old tank. I love it, but I'm a little worried that I shocked my fish too much during the transfer. They seemed to love it at first, but now, 5 hours later, the Molly is suddenly not moving much and just kind of wiggling in one place. And now the Zebra Danios are schooling much more tightly than usual. :nono:

Ammonia is a little high, but I have chloramines in my water, so it usually takes 24 hours after a water change before I can get an accurate ammonia reading. No nitrites and about 5-10 ppm nitrates.

I guess I'll have to see what the morning brings. Wish me luck.
 
In case anyone is still following this, I woke up to a miracle. All my fish pulled through and were behaving much more like themselves this morning. I did some tests and ammonia is near zero, nitrite is zero, and nitrates are slowly increasing, so it looks like using the biomax from my old filter worked just fine and I'm instantly cycled. (y)

Is it possible for fish to simply get "overly tired" after a stressful day and their behavior last night was just their normal sleeping routine, that I don't usually see?

I'll post a pic of the new tank later today.
 
Well a big move can certainly stress them enough for it to be noticable. glad theycare doing better and harrah! On your instant cycle :)
 
At long last, here is a pic of the tank as it is now. What was fairly densely planted in my 10 gallon is looking sparse now. I'll be getting some tall background plants ASAP!

img_2915754_0_4a5ec7d8327d1e54972f81061f60b8e0.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom