Want To Give Fishes To My Younger Brothers.

[Incogneto21]

So I have a female black tail guppy that have birth to 18 babies 3 months ago. Their getting bigger and I don't want the male babies to get the mother pregnant. My younger brothers want about 8 of the babies. The thing is they have a 20 gallon tank that they haven't used in about a year, so to be the nice big brother that I am I'm going to rinse the tank, the ornaments and buy some gravel tomorrow to fill up the tank and condition the water. So after I do condition the water, is it the same way as starting a new tank?? I'm so confused. I just don't want my younger brothers getting disappointed if they die. =\ ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED THANKS! =]

 

[ocean]

Yes the tank will still need to cycle. You could add some filter media from your filter and use it in your brothers filter to jump start the cycle.

 

[Incogneto21]

Yes the tank will still need to cycle. You could add some filter media from your filter and use it in your brothers filter to jump start the cycle.

What filter media?

 

[ocean]

The filter media you use in your filter, filter floss, cartridges......

 

[Incogneto21]

The filter media you use in your filter, filter floss, cartridges......

Ohh ok. I don't have filter floss, I have an Aqueon filter in my tank that use carbon cartridge.

 

[aquandrew]

Ohh ok. I don't have filter floss, I have an Aqueon filter in my tank that use carbon cartridge.

cut your filter in half and put half of it in the new tank to seed it. then get some cut to size poly filter pads and ditch the carbon filter pads in about a month when the BB has had time to transfer over. carbon is not necessary and those pre made filter pads are much more expensive. do you have a test kit to watch the water parameters?

 

[Mebbid]

You are basically starting off an entirely new tank but there are a few things you could do to speed up the process of cycling the 20g aquarium.

Option 1 - Add some new filter media to your existing filter. Use either filter floss or some filter padding. This will seed the added media with bacteria from your tank. Leave it in your filter for around 1 week and then it will be okay to add it to the new filter.

Option 2 - Buy a filter media bag and add a hand full of gravel from your tank into it. Then place the bag of gravel into the filter along with a new cartridge.

Either of these options should work well since 8 baby guppies won't have hardly any effect on the water parameters of the new tank.

 

[Incogneto21]

You are basically starting off an entirely new tank but there are a few things you could do to speed up the process of cycling the 20g aquarium.

Option 1 - Add some new filter media to your existing filter. Use either filter floss or some filter padding. This will seed the added media with bacteria from your tank. Leave it in your filter for around 1 week and then it will be okay to add it to the new filter.

Option 2 - Buy a filter media bag and add a hand full of gravel from your tank into it. Then place the bag of gravel into the filter along with a new cartridge.

Either of these options should work well since 8 baby guppies won't have hardly any effect on the water parameters of the new tank.

How do I put put filter padding or filter floss in my filter?

 

[Mebbid]

How do I put put filter padding or filter floss in my filter?

There's usually enough space in a filter to cram some in next to the original filter cartridge. Just make sure not to cram it soo full that water doesn't go through.

 

[Incogneto21]

There's usually enough space in a filter to cram some in next to the original filter cartridge. Just make sure not to cram it soo full that water doesn't go through.

So after a week I put it in their filter the same way I had it in mine. And take 5 pieces of gravel in a bag and put it in my brothers tank. Is this correct?

 

[Mebbid]

So after a week I put it in their filter the same way I had it in mine. And take 5 pieces of gravel in a bag and put it in my brothers tank. Is this correct?

I would use a fist sized portion of your gravel in a mesh filter bag. But yes you can put them in the new filter just like it was in yours

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

I agree with mebbid, this should almost instantly cycle your new tank especially with only a few guppies.