Going From 1.5 Gal. To 20 Gal.

[augustaranger]

I have a tiny 1.5 gal. "tank" containing 1 rosie red minnow and 1 ghost shrimp. The tank has been going great for 8 months and has a small DIY foam filter along with gravel and a number of smallish granite rocks with a rough texture. The plan is to move into a new 20 gal. tank soon. The granite rocks will go inside the new tank.

I was thinking of moving the old gravel into the new tank. The gravel has been in a nylon mesh bag inside the little tank. Should I just hang the bag in the new tank or can I place the bag inside a new HOB filter like an Aquaclear? I'm thinking water flowing through the gravel will give the new filter a jump start as far as bacteria goes.

Should I place the home made foam filter in the new tank for seeding, or should I put the foam inside the new filter?

Another question: I plan to stock the new 20 gal. with more ghost shrimp, albino cories and white cloud minnows. How fast and in what order should I begin stocking?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Viettxboii]

hmm a 20 gal?
Well for Cories, i would get a school of 6 in, and 6 white cloud minnows
and a good number og ghost shrimp, saying 5 more to make 6?
so thats 13 fish and 6 shrimp for a total of
Minnows: 2 x 6 = 12
and hte cories would account for 18 for proper numbers and the shrimps would add a few more.
and ht rosy red as well.
What you could try is get a few more rosy reds, say 3-4
and get about 3 cories(try pygmies theyre smaller)
and ghost shrimpwise try the aforementioned
so 3x1=3 Pygmy Cories
and 5 x 3= 15= Rosy reds
15+3+2-3for shrimps=roughly 20, so you couild try that

 

[dthoffsett]

I'd move everything over from the 1.5gal to the 20 gal. If you do get an aquaclear you could put the diy filter foam and gravel in it (just leave out the carbon insert, you really don't need it).

I'm not that great on stocking suggestions, however I'd let the tank sit for a couple of weeks before you start adding new fish. I'd get 2 to 3 fish at a time, and wait a week before adding more, if you do it very slowly, you shouldn't have any mini-cycle problems. Good luck, and we defiantely want pics when you get everything set up.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

My recommendation would be...use some of the filter media and substrate to seed the new tank, but do a fishless cycle before adding anything. That way you can fully stock the tank once it's done instead of slowly adding one or two fish at a time. The colony of bacteria from a 1.5 gallon tank just simply wouldn't be big enough to support the 20 G without some kind of cycling.

 

[augustaranger]

Bought a used 20 gal. tank with a Biowheel 170 filter rated for 50 gallons. Can I put the foam filter and/or bag of gravel from the old tank inside this filter to seed the new tank?

Also have some rocks from the 1.5 going into the 20. Hopefully I'll have enough bacteria to get the 20 started OK. Comments? Thanks.

 

[darkwolf29a]

Bought a used 20 gal. tank with a Biowheel 170 filter rated for 50 gallons. Can I put the foam filter and/or bag of gravel from the old tank inside this filter to seed the new tank?

Also have some rocks from the 1.5 going into the 20. Hopefully I'll have enough bacteria to get the 20 started OK. Comments? Thanks.

I like the filter with the smaller tank, that's very cool IMO. I would take some of the gravel, rocks, filter media, and put them in. The cycle will have a REALLY good start.

Just my .02

 

[lilfishie]

move everything across as had been said them give it a day or two, test the water and if good and the fish you have, then maybe give it a week before adding more

 

[augustaranger]

Got the new tank set the up other night. I let it run for 48 hrs. then I put the old filter media inside the new filter. Also put the old gravel (which was inside a nylon mesh bag) on the substrate near the filter intake. I even placed the little 1.5 gal. tank inside the 20 gal. thinking that would possibly transfer more bacteria.

So far, so good except the water is a little cloudy. I rinsed the new gravel before putting it inside the tank. Is this cloudiness normal? Should I do anything?