29 & 20L: out-of-biz sale livestock help

[marsh]

Hello hello! My lfs is going out of business and today I stopped in for a couple female mollies and came home with lots and lots of free livestock--- I really need help so I can introduce all these fish into my two established tanks safely.

I need to know what additional filtration I need and tips as these are all new species to me. I already ordered a Aquaclear 70 HOB for my 29 and just popped in a whisper10i but it doesn't have any "media bag" only the comb thingy in it.

I will describe my tanks with the current fish/filtration I already have in them:

20 long: bubble/sponge filter I only run during the day and slim HOB rated for 20 gals with a male betta fish. No other livestock except 1 assassin snail and lots of pond snail babies.

29: Heavily planted (15 anubias & other lowlight plants) whisper40 in tank filter and 14 small/med neon tetras. No other livestock except 1 assassin snail and lots of pond snail babies.

Both tanks have driftwood, plants, rocks, lots of fake roots and caves for the fry and the loaches to hide in

So here are my many new fish, all need to be added ASAP:

2x Clown Loaches that are about 3.5" long
1x Green/Orange Loach 3" long
1x Algae eater 4" long
4x adult guppies and 8 or so guppy fry

{All of the above I plan to put into my 29, after moving the assassin snail}

2x adult mollies, both female, 1" and 2"
5x Platies (1 is male) and 10 tiny fry

{the above fish I will likely add to the betta tank, but I might put the fry in with the peaceful fish in my 29)

Well that's about it! I am going to do a WC and parameter tests right now before acclimating the fish and if I am making any mistakes you notice I would love to hear your advice before I finish in a few hours and release the livestock! Thanks!!!

 

[marsh]

ok turns out i have 28 platy fry! I may introduce all of them to my 20L with the Betta and if he eats some so be it! he is a juvenile (replaced my dear dear Marshall after 3 long wonderful year last April) and his mouth is still so small he can barely swallow his betta food so I am hopeful some of these babies will survive.

Also- bad news my well water parameters are sky-high with a 20-30 PPM Nitrate reading.

My only option is to go get some 5 gallon jugs at the reverse-osmosis water refill things by the supermarket.

not going to happen today so I did a 75% WC on the 20L already and am acclimating the mollies, platies and their fry and introducing those fish shortly.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Id say everything but the platy fry into the 29 gallon and then the platy fry with the beta in the 20. Just so you know the clown loaches will need re-homed as they really need a 50 gallon+ as a minimum and assuming the "algae eater" is a common pleco he will need re-homed in the near future as common plecos grow very rapidly while you have a little time with the clown loaches as they are slow growers. Hope this helps!

 

[marsh]

thanks a million Dallas! Why do you think the Platies should go into the 29 vs the 20? any aggression w/ my betta? or just bc of filtration?

The "algae eater" is def not a pleco.

here is a link to a pic I just snapped of him:
http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj586/bettaruffage/photo54_zps616001e3.jpg

what is he called?

as for the clown loaches I do have an empty 50 gallon tank I was hoping to set up as a cold water tank for a (free) Ryukin from the same lfs in the next month after I try to get a cycle started (via pure ammonia).


will clown loaches survive in an unheated tank that is placed outside in a covered porch in warm-climate coastal California?> never gets below freezing temps

 

[Fresh2o]

That looks like a Siamese Algae Eater. I don't know much about them but I believe they are much less aggressive than the commonly sold Chinese Algae Eater.
You might be pushing your luck with the loaches and low temperature. According to the Loaches dot com site, the temp range is 78-87 F. And they get huge. They may soon outgrow the 50. http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus
As for cycling the 50g, you should be able to jump start it be using some media from the existing filters; should cut weeks off the cycling.
Just curious about the sponge filter in the 20g. Why is it not running all of the time? I would imagine that there would be some die off in the bacteria after sitting with no flow for several hours each day.

 

[Andy Sager]

20 long: bubble/sponge filter I only run during the day and slim HOB rated for 20 gals with a male betta fish. No other livestock except 1 assassin snail and lots of pond snail babies.

Thanks!!!

Sponge filters, especially the inside the tank bubble kind, need to run constantly. The water movement through the sponge is what keeps the bacteria bed in the sponge alive. When you turn them off, you create a toxic condition inside the sponge and you create anaerobic bacteria. That's not what you want as they don;t convert ammonia into nitrites and nitrates.
I'd suggest you rinse out the sponge then keep the filter running all the time to create a second base for your biological filtering.

Hope this helps

 

[marsh]

That is a very interesting tip guys, I run it when I am not sleeping bc it is in my bedroom so perhaps it will work better in my 29 which is located in my art studio.

My main concern w/ both tanks was the under-filtration issue with all these new fish. I had only the betta in the 20 (was a larger 3 y/o until he passed in April, now it holds just an itty bitty betta that to me seems so small! but your typical chain pet-store size fish___)

These new loaches are mature specimen that lived in the lfs for years, the owner was giving her stock away to customers with established tanks, and I was lucky enough to have called her earlier today so I stopped in and brought home quite a few fish unexpectedly.

These loaches were in a 29 but I can only assume the WC schedule was daily. They are bigger than any I have ever seen. I have an empty 50 Gallon that used to be my reef tank so perhaps I will fore-go the Ryukin tank I was thinking about(she has one calico I was going to go back for), make it into a loach tank and try to over-filter the heck out of it until I can upgrade. I didn't realize loaches get as large as plecos- I want to do right by their species so I fully enjoy their character.

I will research the siamese algae eater! thanks for the ID