Extra 5 Galllon Tank: Ideas?

[mwood2]

So I have 2 extra 5 gallon tanks downstairs. I am moving around my bedroom to give room for extra shelves. On the extra shelf I have room for 1 of them but cant decide between the 2. One is a 5 gallon hex and the other is a 5 gallon bow front. Both are Marineland Eclipse tanks so they use the same filter/lighting anyways.

After deciding which I will take I plan to take some of the extra wood from my girlfriends cycling tank (she doesnt plan to finish cycling her 10 gallon) as well as some of the extra decor from my other 2 tanks. My next issue is which tank to take media from. My current plan is to:

Remove quarter/half the media from my DP tank and place into the 5 gallon, move the DP into the 5 gallon and from there move 2 Honey into the 10 gallon. From there I plan to observe both tanks to make sure there are no ammonia/nitrite spikes. Of course at the first sign of trouble I still have the option to move the gourami back to the 30 and the DP back to the 10 (with the media of course).

Another option could be to turn the 5 or the 10 into a betta tank which has interested me for awhile now. I prefer the DP in the 10 since in reality I likely wont be able to find him a partner since I cant find any.

And no I dont have room for a 10 or bigger. Stuck with a 5 (for now)

Opinions?

 

[saltynay]

Fish tunnel between the two tanks to get a 10 gallon over all, a possibility?
Invert only tank
Betta tank as you said
Endler or guppies small shoal with 3-4 corys depending on efficiency of the filter.

 

[mwood2]

Hmmm well I cant deide weather or not to use the 5 or the 10 as the betta tank. Endlers are hard to come by for me and not a huge guppy fan either.

 

[saltynay]

Oldman in the livebearer section has very good stock of endlers and is US based. This is what I mean by fish tunnel:
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxMRqZ9dUx8

 

[mwood2]

Fish tank are on differnt ends of room so tunnel isnt an option. Also prefer not deal with shipping.

 

[saltynay]

Fish tank are on differnt ends of room so tunnel isnt an option.

I see that as an engineering obstacle not a no go you could have the tunnel follow the walls or co up and over the ceiling ending up with DP's swimming above your head.

 

[mwood2]

I live with my girlfriend and her mom, what she says pretty much goes and my 30 is already to much in her opinion.

 

[loraxchick]

id use the 5 for a betta and the 10 for others. some bettas dont tollerate tankmates and to only have 1 betta in a ten gal (if he doesnt like his room mates) would be a lot of wasted space (well not wasted, but it would be a shame to have only 1 fish in a ten).
also, you said you might take up to half of your filter media from your dp tank. this is not advisable. you really sohuld take no more than a third of the filter media at a time from any existing filter...and in this case id say less than that if using the puffer;s filter as they need great water quality...taking to much media will compromise his filtration for a while and you may end up with one very unhappy puffer.
have fun with the new tanks tho. always so exciting to set up a new one and ponder what it will end up as!
good luck

 

[Hawkins]

Fish tank are on differnt ends of room so tunnel isnt an option.

I see that as an engineering obstacle not a no go you could have the tunnel follow the walls or co up and over the ceiling ending up with DP's swimming above your head.

Lol I would love that.

How can i incorporate that into my bedroom..

 

[KingofthePisces]

a pair of blue rams , 2 kuhlii loaches and some ottos perhaps?
+an anubias (possibly dwarf) plant on some driftwood with a sand substrate with a flat rock at the front for the rams to breed on. that would be awesome.

 

[mwood2]

in a 5 or 10 gallon? That doesn't sound right.

 

[saltynay]

In a 10 gallon I suspect and kuhli loaches are an option but should be kept in a group of 3+

 

[KingofthePisces]

well i guess you could try a small group of tetras
instead of the blue rams and kuhliis
idk what would you prefer? cichlids or tetras?

 

[mwood2]

Well I am debating how to do this without re cycling my tank. I orignally had the Dp in a 5 gallon for 2-4 months and then cloned the tank into the 10 gallon for the past 2-3 months. My issue is how much media to take out of that into the 5 gallon and how much media from the 30 to put into the 10 to compensate.

Another thing I may want to do is move over some of my 30 into my 10. I was thinking of:

5 gallon:
1 Dp

10 Gallon:
2 Honey
1 Molly
6 Cory

30 Gallon:
3 Molly
7 Oto
1BN
7 Tetra or Rasbora (dont know what type)
5 Loach (dont know what type.

Of course my first goal is to get media and fish into all 3 tanks as to not loose a cycled tank or start a new cycle.