Moving From 2 Tanks To 1

[mwood2]

well my parents are on my butt about how many cords I have with my two 5 gallon tanks so I am thinking about putting my 2 tanks together. So in one 10 Gallon that would come to:

2 AFD
2 Oto
1 Green Cory
1 Molly
13 Molly Fry (3 week old)
2 Dwarf Platy (coral Platy is there true name I believe)
1 Red Platy

I am trying to see if any pet store near by will take my fry and I think I know one that will but haven't spoken to them yet. I bought a new 5-10 gallon filter and currently have it attached to my 5 gallon hex tank so that when I do set up the new tank I have a cycled filter. I placed all the media from my old one in it and it all fit so that good. I plan to use one of the heaters from my tanks since both are 50 watt. The new hood of the tank holds 2 25 watt bulbs so I will be able to have lots of plants in there as well. Shall I transplant all my plants into the new tank too? What opinions of everyone?

Also if I would be able to loose the Cory and Red Platy and leave 3 Molly Fry inside would I be able to keep anything else or am I at the limit as is? I am thinking maybe 1-2 more AFD.

 

[minxfishy]

With good water changes, you should be fine to combine the two tanks together, although I wouldnt suggest anything else to the tank.

Planting it up would be nice, but dont go overboards as space is at a premium, the fish need space to swim about.

Tranfer all the media into the largest of the filters you have and use that and yes a 50W heater is enough for that size tank.

 

[OldMan47]

Sorry MWood but the 25 watt bulbs are probably the screw in incandescents. The incandescents are not a very bright light source for the amount of power they use. Chances are that the screw in spiral fluorescents might fit. Two 13 watt fluorescents would heat up the water less and give you more light than the 2 25s. They would let you keep low light plants quite healthy.

 

[Syphoniera]

If they're screw-in incandescents, you're lucky, because you can use daylight/soft white compact bulbs and have good light far more cheaply.
In Canada, at any rate, they fit my 10 gallon hood.