200 Litre Advice

[Jamepsss]

Hi there. Long time lurker and first time poster here so please go easy on me

I bought a second hand Fluval Roma 200 on Saturday which had an established 305 external filter. (The seller took the fish back to his LFS 2 hours before I collected the tank). Now I'm pretty sure the nitrifying bacteria on this filter are now dead as although we kept the filter filled with tank water I wasn't ready to add fish right away - I didn't even get it fully set up until Sunday afternoon. It's now Monday and I've been running the filter on full pelt to try and clear the water but obviously there's no source of ammonia, just sand, water, wood, rock and new plants. Oh and I've got a layer of aquabasis under the sand.

Here's where I need help...

- I cut a section of the 305's media off and put it in my internal which has been running on my 60 litre for the past year. (I usually put carbon pads in this spare section). How long would it take to get a colony on this pad by running it in this filter on a slightly overstocked 60 litre?

- If I cut a 3rd off the 60's internal filter's original pad and put it in the 305 would that be enough to introduce the first fish or two to my 200?

Any help much appreciated. I'll see how this thread goes down before I go into my concerns about my plants and stocking ideas

 

[Wills]

Hi 200L is a nice size tank lots of options

What I would do is set it up with as much mature media as you can and dose it with ammonia like if you were doing a fishless cycle and seeing how the levels drop over 24 hours. That will give you a good idea of where you are with the cycle still, you might need to dose for a few days or a week depending on how its gone.

If your not planning on running the 60 just move all of the filter over as it should go level sideways if you see what I mean. And run it along side your external and the filters will both colonise or just put all the media from the 60 into the new external and all your fish will be able to go across straight away as your bacteria will be supporting your current amount of fish and in the external it will keep up with the turn over while your bacteria will be coping with the same amount of waste.

Now whats the stocking plan

 

[Jamepsss]

Hi Wills - thanks for the reply.

My 60 is stocked with small fish that don't exactly tie into my plans for the 200! I've also got some albino corys that won't stop spawning in there as well as 16 fry in two separate breeding nets. These are keeping me extremely busy at the moment but that's another story. My plan is to keep SOME of the cory's I've raised and introduce them to the 200 when they are big enough and the water chemistry is correct. The 60 will stay put.

The fry were the main reason I decided to splash out on the new tank but I've wanted to go bigger for ages! I love bala sharks and tinfoil barbs. Don't worry though, I'm totally aware that 200 is not big enough for them and I'm not going tpo go there.

Fish I'm interested in then for my 200 are a selection of...

A single adult angel fish
Denison Barbs
Bosemani rainbows
Neon rainbows
Congo Tetra
Buenos Airies tetra
Bolivian Rams
Red tail shark (or red fin?)

What do you think?

Thanks

 

[Wills]

Ah right I see yeah I would seed the external with as much as you can spare then but dont take loads because it will damage that tank. If you dont have fish waiting to move straight over do a seeded fishless cycle it wont take long and will pay off in the long run.

With your stocking idea, loving the idea of a large angel in there But on the list you have 4 schooling fish that get pretty big, so like if you had 6 Denison and 6 Bosmani and 6 Congo and 6 Buenos Airies thats going to be pretty packed. I think I would choose 2 of them or 1 of them and a bigger school of the neons. So like 6 Denison and 6 Buenos Airies or 6 Congo and 10 Dwarf Neon. I think if it were me I would go for 6 Buenos Airies and 6 Congos. The rams will work nice with the Angels as well, make sure they are bolivians as the blues and golds need much higher temperature. And I would go for the Rainbow shark as they are a bit more peaceful than the red tails, the rainbows have red on all their fins. So the list would look something like -

1 Angel
4 Bolivian Rams
6 Congo Tetras
6 Buenos Airies Tetras
1 Rainbow Shark
+ the Albino Cories

Thats going to give you quite a few big fish in there with lots of colour and with 12 active schooling fish thats going to be fantastic.

Wills

 

[Jamepsss]

Yeah the list is just what I've narrowed it down to. I'll need to narrow it down again for my final stock. I can see some very tough decisions ahead and it's gonna be hard to disuade me from the Denisons as I was looking at them last week and they're stunning.

Thanks for your advice about the seeded cycle. What about if I was to move over the adult cories and let the babies I'm keeping stay in the 60? That could possibly work although I'm geetting 100+ eggs a fortnight from them which is a starting to be a bit of a pain!

PS - What's your thoughts on corys and a plec in the same tank?