Moving To 4 Foot Questions

[motas]

Hi I have a 3 foot tank currently and would like to move to a 4 foot but had a few questions:

1. I like the look of sand over gravel, is it any harder to clean and dies it raise any problems for a bristlenose?
2. About how much would I need for good planted coverage for a 48x14x20" in kg of sand or gravel?
3. How many fish could I potentially house in this tank? Its a 220L tank and would prefer metric measurements. It obviously depends on size but as a general rule
4. What's the best way to swap to the new tank? Was planning to run both filters on the smaller current tank for a week and then move it to the bigger tank and cycle it then add the fish afterwards.

Right now we have:

• 15 neon tetras
• 2 bristlenose
• 2 platys
• 3 gouramis
• 1 minnow (from the original misguided fish in cycle)
• 7 guppies

Thanks for any help.

 

[motas]

Also is there any problems having this in a bedroom?

 

[CSnyder00]

Okay. Let's see if I can help here. Run the filters on the 3 foot tank for 2-3 weeks so that they can build up a bacteria load to handle the new tank. Do NOT clean the filters when you move them over to the 4 foot tank. Once you move the filters over, move 1/3 of the fish or so. Keep the species together. Every 3-5 days move more fish. This will allow the bacteria to keep up with the ammonia. That should allow you to do this without having to cycle. As for the sand substrate, Bristlenose love it! They will be fine. Both of my tanks have sand and they breed readily. All good for that. It is easier to clean, except for the fact that every so often you will have to stir the sand to release air bubbles that build up. Just run the vacuum over the top without touching the sand and it will suck everything right up.
 
Before changing your stock, lets get this move done first.
 
Hope this helps! Ask anything if I missed it.

 

[fluttermoth]

I wouldn't go to all the hassle of moving fish and filters gradually.
 
Just move all the old filter media into the new tank's filter, fill in any gaps with new media, and then move all the fish at the same tim. 
 
Remember it's not tanks, or even filters, that cycle, it's the filter media. try and think of the media as being 'paired' with the fish, not the tank or filter. So if you want to move half the fish, move half the filter media with them. If you're moving all the fish, move all the media.
 
So;
 
1. Sand is easy to keep clean; just run your gravel cleaner over it, a cm or two above the sand, as Csnyder says.
2. depending on how deep you have the sand (and you don't want more than 5 or 6 cms) 10 or 15 kgs would be ample (it's handy to have some spare sand as you inevitably loose some when cleaning)
3. I'm afraid there really aren't any 'general rules' when it comes to stocking, not that are in anyway reliable, anyway. Every set up has to be treated individually.
4. If you're moving all the current fish to the new tank, strip your old tank down, saving as much water as possible and putting the fish and plants in covered buckets. Set up the new tank, adding as much of old water as possible, add the decor and plants, then the fish, old filter media to the new filter, and then top up with new water.

 

[motas]

Before reading these replies I put the new filter media sitting in the old tank. So when I move I can just simply put all the media in the new filter and move everything across. Then later I can remove the old media to put back in the smaller filter. I ended up with 20kg of black sand from the store but lost a bit cleaning it out. Right now the tank is full of water with the filter running only with physical media which ill clean out before using properly. Now I had a couple more questions. To have live plants, only basic ones nothing special, do I need a light source and does it matter whether its led or tube lights? I realize the differences in wavelengths that make up this light changing the colour but do not know the effect on plants. The tank is next to a window but will mainly be covered by a curtain. Also when I was at the pet shop I noticed a lot of tanks had bettas in them with other fish. I like the betta fish but didn't get one due to the aggression but is it safe to try a female betta in a community tank like mine? I do have a small tank I can put her in if I have to but only have a heater not a filter for it.
Thanks heaps for the help.