JSP1969
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi. I'm a brand new member to this forum, this is my first post. Although I've had my aquarium for several years I consider myself an amateur albeit well-read fish keeper, as I believe if you're going to keep pets (including fish) you should know how to take care of them. Their life is literally within your hands so you better know how to take care of them.
That said, I still tend to be a little gung ho and in my exuberance I wind up doing things the wrong way, but perhaps because of my thoroughness (and sheer luck) I tend to finish my projects in good shape.
I'm posting today because after 10+ years of keeping a 10-gallon freshwater tank I've just upgraded to a 20-gallon (and I already wish I could go bigger but I simply don't have the room) and as mentioned, I went about the upgrade the wrong way, while still trying to do things the right way, as contradictory as that sounds.
I had 10 Neons and 3 Black Kuhli Loaches living in my planted, 10-gallon tank, and this weekend my daughter and I returned from the store with 6 White Clouds and several more plants. After getting the Clouds settled in I looked at my little tank and I knew it was time. To paraphrase Chief Martin Brody, I was going to need a bigger tank.
I scored a 20-gallon tank, hood, and fluorescent light at Petsmart for $50. They had a starter kit with LED lights, filter, and a heater for $80, but after reading that the cheap, low end LEDs are not good for planted tanks I decided to go with the cheaper, bare bones tank and put the money I saved towards a new filter. I lucked out because Petsmart had a sale where if you bought a tank & hood/light combo you could get a filter for half off, so I wound up with a new tank and a Top Fin 30 filter for a shade over $60.
It wasn't until I got my new tank home that I realized just how big a job transferring fish from one tank to another would be...especially when you want the new tank to go where the old tank is, and you can't move either tank if they're full.
Long story short, I hooked up the Top Fin 30 filter to my 10-gallon tank for a couple of days (to build up BB on its sponge & filter) while leak testing the new tank, then last night did the switch.
I used several buckets to retain as much of the water from the 10-gallon tank as possible, and used one of the buckets and my Top Fin 10 as a mini-aquarium to house the fish while I switched the tanks over.
I scooped the gravel/substrate out of the old tank, poured off the nasty water but didn't rinse off the gravel (I didn't want to kill off the BB living on it) then poured the substrate into the new tank, along with 2 buckets of the old tank's water, replanted the plants, then added more water to the new tank to bring it up to a level where I could start up the Top Fin 30 filter. I took the Top Fin 10 off the bucket and hooked it up to the new tank, and added enough water so I could start it up, too. So yes, there's now a 10-gallon filter and a 30-gallon filter cycling my 20-gallon tank.
Having made sure the water in the new tank was at the same temperature as the water in the bucket with the fish, which was still at approx. the same temperature as the old aquarium, I slowly submerged then upended the entire bucket of fish into the new tank.
Once the filters had done their job and the water had cleared everyone was looking okay, and with so much more room in the new tank the "schooling" phenomenon was much more apparent, hence my desire for an even bigger tank! Alas there really is not enough room for anything bigger than a 20.
In the evening with the lights dimmed the Loaches came out and were doing their Loach dance up & down the side of the tank. It had only been a couple of hours but everyone seemed to have adjusted to the move no worse for the wear.
This morning before work I checked in and everyone seemed okay. I was a little concerned that a couple of the Clouds seemed to be floating at the very top of the tank but when my cat jumped up onto the front of the coffee table (which doubles as a tank stand) the Clouds took off swimming and nobody seemed to be having any problems.
My wife has also reported that as of a few hours ago, nobody was floating belly up. I know I'm in no way out of the forest yet, there's still the potential for ammonia and/or nitrite spikes ahead. And yet in spite of moving everyone into a brand new tank and hitting them with a 50% water change, I'm actually feeling somewhat optimistic.
So...why am I posting here then?
Because I don't want to lose anyone.
I want everyone to make it through this transition okay so I'd like to know what to look out for, what signs are indicative of dangerous conditions, and what can I do at this point to minimize or eliminate those dangers.
Thanks for any advice,
John.
That said, I still tend to be a little gung ho and in my exuberance I wind up doing things the wrong way, but perhaps because of my thoroughness (and sheer luck) I tend to finish my projects in good shape.
I'm posting today because after 10+ years of keeping a 10-gallon freshwater tank I've just upgraded to a 20-gallon (and I already wish I could go bigger but I simply don't have the room) and as mentioned, I went about the upgrade the wrong way, while still trying to do things the right way, as contradictory as that sounds.
I had 10 Neons and 3 Black Kuhli Loaches living in my planted, 10-gallon tank, and this weekend my daughter and I returned from the store with 6 White Clouds and several more plants. After getting the Clouds settled in I looked at my little tank and I knew it was time. To paraphrase Chief Martin Brody, I was going to need a bigger tank.
I scored a 20-gallon tank, hood, and fluorescent light at Petsmart for $50. They had a starter kit with LED lights, filter, and a heater for $80, but after reading that the cheap, low end LEDs are not good for planted tanks I decided to go with the cheaper, bare bones tank and put the money I saved towards a new filter. I lucked out because Petsmart had a sale where if you bought a tank & hood/light combo you could get a filter for half off, so I wound up with a new tank and a Top Fin 30 filter for a shade over $60.
It wasn't until I got my new tank home that I realized just how big a job transferring fish from one tank to another would be...especially when you want the new tank to go where the old tank is, and you can't move either tank if they're full.
Long story short, I hooked up the Top Fin 30 filter to my 10-gallon tank for a couple of days (to build up BB on its sponge & filter) while leak testing the new tank, then last night did the switch.
I used several buckets to retain as much of the water from the 10-gallon tank as possible, and used one of the buckets and my Top Fin 10 as a mini-aquarium to house the fish while I switched the tanks over.
I scooped the gravel/substrate out of the old tank, poured off the nasty water but didn't rinse off the gravel (I didn't want to kill off the BB living on it) then poured the substrate into the new tank, along with 2 buckets of the old tank's water, replanted the plants, then added more water to the new tank to bring it up to a level where I could start up the Top Fin 30 filter. I took the Top Fin 10 off the bucket and hooked it up to the new tank, and added enough water so I could start it up, too. So yes, there's now a 10-gallon filter and a 30-gallon filter cycling my 20-gallon tank.
Having made sure the water in the new tank was at the same temperature as the water in the bucket with the fish, which was still at approx. the same temperature as the old aquarium, I slowly submerged then upended the entire bucket of fish into the new tank.
Once the filters had done their job and the water had cleared everyone was looking okay, and with so much more room in the new tank the "schooling" phenomenon was much more apparent, hence my desire for an even bigger tank! Alas there really is not enough room for anything bigger than a 20.
In the evening with the lights dimmed the Loaches came out and were doing their Loach dance up & down the side of the tank. It had only been a couple of hours but everyone seemed to have adjusted to the move no worse for the wear.
This morning before work I checked in and everyone seemed okay. I was a little concerned that a couple of the Clouds seemed to be floating at the very top of the tank but when my cat jumped up onto the front of the coffee table (which doubles as a tank stand) the Clouds took off swimming and nobody seemed to be having any problems.
My wife has also reported that as of a few hours ago, nobody was floating belly up. I know I'm in no way out of the forest yet, there's still the potential for ammonia and/or nitrite spikes ahead. And yet in spite of moving everyone into a brand new tank and hitting them with a 50% water change, I'm actually feeling somewhat optimistic.
So...why am I posting here then?
Because I don't want to lose anyone.
I want everyone to make it through this transition okay so I'd like to know what to look out for, what signs are indicative of dangerous conditions, and what can I do at this point to minimize or eliminate those dangers.
Thanks for any advice,
John.
