Advise Please

[gamwar]

Hia Everyone,

I need some advise please...
I moved house a year ago, and on the day of the move I transfered my guppy's from a filtered tropical tank to an unfiltered coldwater tank. One year on they are still alive (thankfully) and are breeding... However I want to move them back into their old tropical tank but it has been in the garage for a year and I'm slightly concerned about how to go about setting it up again (its been a while since I last cycled a tank and can't remember much about it). I was thinking of washing the tank, lid and heater but buying a new filter and gravel. Any advise would be very much appreciated!! oh and also what should I wash the tank with (if you think its a good idea).

Thank-you very much,
Gamwar

 

[james_fish]

You'd need to let a new filter cycle completely. Either fishless or fish in, but if those particular guppies have been kept in un-filtered water for a year im not saying do it but you could just do a fish in cycle. Or you could keep them in coldwater during the summer and be ready with a cycled tank come late summer/early autumn. This could also work well with the Guppy fry, if you plan on keeping them that is. Use the un-used tropical tank as a breeding tank, buy yourself a simple breeding trap, then return the adults to the coldwater tank and let your fry swim freely in the tropical tank. Then in a few months when they have grown, add your adults and you will have a nice collection of Guppies!

As for cleaning you could use small amounts of bleach with water ration 1:25 or something similar. Just give it a general good scrub and then go about adding your gravel and ornaments.

Hope that helps a bit