A Lot Of Questions :)

[LouiseRat]

OK hwg

we have a juwel rekord 120 tank ,(32 us gallons) we have had it for 65 days , we have had the spikes of nitrite and ammonia and nitrate but it has never really settled here are todays stats

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0.1 mg/l
nitrate - 25 mg/l
ph 8.5

in it we have

5 guppys
2 gouramis
10 corys
6 neons
5 swordtails
2 clown plecs


we bought a new tank a fluval uno 500 (8.2 uk gallons)

we used tank water from a water change from the main tank , put in a used white filter (the cottony one)and put 3 swordtails in (long story but one male was bullied by another male so we bought him a new tank and 2 ladies - one of which has now changed itself to a male grr)

we havent been able to monitor the 2nd tank as closely as we would like due to a serious family bereavement , but checked the 2nd tank water stats tonight and here they are

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 12.5 mg/l
ph - 8.5

does this mean the tank has cycled already?have we successfully cloned the tank?

why has the 2nd tank cycled , yet , the first one is still not settling?

also we are looking into changing the substrate in the main tank from gravel to sand as we think the corys and plecs would love it , as we have seen the swordtails in tank 2 sitting in the sand and playing lol

what is the least stressfull way to change the substrate?

dont wanna upset the fish

 

[Shelly0518]

Your first tank is taking longer to cycle because there are more fish in it and it takes time for the good biobugs to multiply to handle that many fish. In my opinion, your tank is overstocked. If all of your fish were only 1 inch long, slim bodied fish then you would be at the max. Plecos are big poo producers. Also, a factor could be cleaning the gravel too much or replacing the filter media, possibly causing "mini-cycles". When doing my weekly water changes I do a once over above the gravel and then deep clean only 1/3 of the gravel. Replacing filter media is not necessary unless it is falling apart. Rinsing it off in the old tank water and scraping any big chunks off is all that is needed, IMO. The smaller tank was helped along greatly by adding old filter media and doesn't have the bioload demands of the larger tank.

I recently changed a tank from gravel to sand. I wouldn't do it in your situation until you are getting 0 readings of ammonia and nitrites for a couple of weeks so that the bacteria is well established. I netted out a couple of scoops of gravel every couple of days until I just had a just a thin layer of gravel. I bought some new women's nylons and put the remaining gravel in that. I then got 2 buckets and transferred the fish and the filter into the bucket and the decorations into the other. Make sure your sand is already well rinsed before you start. I then took a small plastic bowl and filled it with the wet sand and slowly poured the sand on the bottom of the tank. Let the sand settle and then start transferring everything back in. From start to finish, it took me about 1 and a half hours. I put the contained gravel back in the tank for another week, just to be safe.

Hope this helps and good luck!
Shelly

 

[LouiseRat]

thanks for your help shelly

 

[Shelly0518]

Your welcome