Help With New Tank!

[tibby25731]

Well I am going to look at a tank tomorrow and am pretty sure I am gonna buy it. It is a 4ft tank, and it also has a 2ft tank in the base, totally separate. I plan to use the 2ft as a quarantine/hospital/fry tank, and the 4ft will have my pleco and kribs in it to start off with.
The person I am buying off currently has 3 oscars but is rehoming them. I am hoping to keep the filter media for the main tank wet. The main tank has an external filter and I have no idea how this works - will I just pop the filter media, whatever it is, into some tank water as I would for a sponge? If I can keep it wet, will I be able to move the pleco and kribs into the tank straight away? If not, how do I go about it?
Then, I will use existing media to cycle to smaller tank. Advice on how to go about this? Do I need to move a few fish into it along with filter media? HELP!
I don't want to do any of this wrong so please, step by step would be great!
I AM SO EXCITED! I have been looking for a new tank for a while and I think this is it!
Any tips on what to look at when I go to view the tank tomorrow?

 

[LauraFrog]

Wow... that sounds like a good buy. You definitely want to see the filter running. Most of these 'external filters' are canister filters. According to my LFS they are prone to breaking down but the ones you get in Australia are crap anyway.
Bag the filter media in some water like you would a live plant. They don't need to be completely submerged like a live fish. The sooner you can get the filter home, the better. Replace the filter media, turn the filter back on and as soon as the tank settles (give it a couple of hours for the water to clear) put in the fish. Otherwise the lack of ammonia will starve the good bacteria and you could lose the cycle. If you must add fish days later add ammonia at 1 ml per ten gallons (less than below because you're not trying to cycle it, just keep bacteria alive.)
How does the extra tank in the base work? If it's running on the same filter or acting as a sump, using it as a hospital tank won't work because the medication (and disease pathogens) will get sucked up and pumped into the main tank. You'll have to use separate filtration. If you don't intend to have it permanently stocked but want to keep it cycled, you'll need a lot of ammonia. To fishless cycle a tank or keep it cycled without fish in it, you have to put ammonia in the water every day to a concentration of about 1ppm. The dose rate is one millilitre of ammonia for every five gallons of water.

When you check out the tank I would check the front and back of it for scratches. if the front of a tank gets badly scratched up, provided it is rectangular and not panoramic (curved front) you can just turn it around so the scratched side isn't showing. Obviously you can only do that once but by the time the new front gets too scratched up to be attractive most tanks are getting past it anyway. You can turn a dead tank upside down, cover it with a tablecloth and use it as a stand for small tanks or decorations.

 

[tibby25731]

Well the tank is great, it's being delivered this afternoon! The main tank had 3 adult oscars and a common pleco in it until last night, and the filter has been kept running - the seller is gonna keep the filter media wet and only lives about 20mins away from me so I guess as long as I keep it wet when it gets to me and get the tank up and running asap, then I can put a few fish in later today? I want to move my pleco, one of my kribensis, and 3 guppies, that should be OK for the bioload shouldn't it? And then the bottom tank has an internal filter running an a jewel cichlid living in it so if that filter media is kept wet too, will I be OK to move 3 guppies into it? The plan is to keep 3 guppies in the smaller tank until I buy some new fish, then the guppies will go into the main tank with the others and the new fish will quarantine in the bottom tank. And then when fish have quarantined, I will always move a few smaller fish into the small tank to keep the bacterias alive. In my old 2ft tank, I am keeping my 3 neons plus my frogs, plus the other krib who at the moment is protecting some unfertilised eggs, I'm gonna leave her in there until the eggs are gone and then will move her across to the main tank. And I will buy some more neons and maybe a few other tetras to live in the old tank with the frogs.
Good plan? Any flaws that I am missing?

 

[tibby25731]

Right, the tanks are both set up but no fish in them yet. I didn't have enough gravel really for the 4ft and need some more, and have none at all for the 2ft, so I will buy some today. Both filters and heaters are running and I popped some frozen food into them both last night, hoping that as this decays it will feed my filter bacteria, assuming they survived. HOw do I know for sure? If I test for ammo and nitrites and they are zero, then is it OK to put the fish in later today? Or would the food not have started to decay yet to start giving off ammo? It's been in for 18 hours now though as it was frozen mosquito larvae and so pretty small, will it just have been filtered out?

 

[tibby25731]

Anyone? I'm off out to get gravel very soon and I am planning on moving some of my fish over once the gravel is in, if the water parameters seem OK. Is this a good idea? I really just need to know whether the bacteria colonies are still OK cos the internal filter wasn't kept wet but it was out of water for about an hour and then I put it in a bucket of tank water from my old tank and started running it. The external filter, the seller says he left water in there for me but I haven't actually managed to figure how to open it up yet so I don't know whether the filter media had stayed wet. The last thing I want it to start fish-in cycling again, though I guess if I pop the fish in the tanks and test tomorrow, as long as there are no water parameter problems then I should be OK?

 

[Shrimper]

What you could do is move some of the filter media from their existing tank.

I guess you have left some fish behind in the other tank. If you have moved half of them then move half of the old filter media with them and there should be enough bacteria in that. The just replace the media you take out from the old filter with the new stuff.

 

[tibby25731]

My old tank has an internal filter, with a black biological sponge which I can't take part of - its too hard! And then there is a large green sponge that is actually attached to some plastic, it's one of these that you can just lift out by the plastic to replace it. i guess I could try to rip away part of the sponge from the plastic. I can stuff a bit of this into the new small tanks internal filter. What about the big tanks external filter? I haven't even opened it, I guess it has baskets in with different media, which bit would be best to put a bit of existing sponge in, or does it not matter??

Oh and on testing the paramenters for the new big tank I am showing no ammo or nitrite, so I guess that is good as the mosquito larvae food i put in has been there for almost 24 hours and must have started to produce ammo...

 

[tibby25731]

I've moved the fish! the 4ft has my common pleco, 1 krib and 3 guppies in it, along with 1/4 of my old filter sponge. The 2ft has 3 guppies in it and another quarter of filter sponge. The old tank has 1 krib, 3 neon tetras an 2 african dwarf frogs, and half of the old filter sponge, plus a brand new spongr too. Also there is the smaller biological sponge which I couldn't separate.
The fish seem to have settled in well, the guppies didn't bat an eyelid and the krib and pleco hid for about 5 mins then came out to explore! I'll just keep a very close eye on the water parameters of all 3 tanks for the next week. Pics of my new tank to follow - not switching the tank lights on tonight to give the fish chance to settle. I'm so happy!

 

[tibby25731]

Well this morning, all fish still seem fine, and the ammo and nitrite are at zero. Do i still need to keep checking the parameters for the next few days do you think? I thought there would be an ammo reading for the large tank as my plec did a poo that was longer than him.... then he did ANOTHER one! I mean, if I am gonna have a problem with my readings, when is it likely to show?

 

[Shrimper]

I would check just in case but it should be ok.

 

[tibby25731]

Wooo! Ok, I will check tonight and then nightly for the next few days just to be on the safe side. But if all is OK then i will be very surprised - it seemed too easy!