New 300L Tank And Transfers From 250L

[esKii]

Hi guys,

I recently got my hands on a second hand 300L tank (I think 80g US from top of my head) for an absolute bargain (woot!) and an eheim 2217. I was wondering which of my fish would be more happy together in this new home.

I currently have- 3 BN plecos, 9 neon tetras, 1 male guppy, 3 clown loach (1 4.5" the other 2 are about 1.5"), 1 SAE, 1 speckled ghost cat, 1 Molly, 4 harlequin rasboras and one 2 spot gourami with quite a few plants, wood and an eheim 2213 with a mixture or sand and gravel substrate. Overstocked much? Yes... Ok onto the transfer to keep em happy and healthy .

Should also mention I know that the rasboras, clowns (they grow big) and ghost cat should be kept in larger groups of 6+ which hopefully I can arrange with the transfer and splitting up of fish. I am currently looking for a new home for Jorge (the ghost cat ) but would love to keep him if I was able to safely stock more of the species. Current water parameters in the 250L are: Ammonia- 0, nitrites 0, nitrate 10, ph 7 and temp 25-26.5C. I am very diligent with my cleaning and water changes but maintaining this current tank is very labour intensive due to the density of population.

So... Basically- Who should go in the new tank and who should stay. What species and amounts should I add to either to keep algae away and make everyone happy. Also consider that the 250L is rather tall. It's 12cm wideX70cm highX30cm deep so I would prefer fish that swim in the middle or top for this tank. The new one is a more standard 6 foot panoramic style one. Also- any suggestions for substrate and anything else (plants, caves, rocks, etc) for the new setup?

Thanks in advance to anyone who was patient enough to read through all of this D

 

[OldMan47]

I would move your entire stock and the filter to the new tank. Check your water parameters after the move to make sure the filter bacteria moved without a glitch and you could fill out the clowns after that. Next up would be rounding out the ghost cats. I do not recall rasboras hets being schooling fish and I love those guys in my community tanks. I have kept them in groups as small as 3 or 4 and as large as a dozen or more with no obvious difference in their behavior. It is up to you whether or not to move plants but that will depend more on lighting in the new tank than on tank volume.

 

[esKii]

When you say "round up" the ghost cats do you mean get more or round up the one i have and ship him out? To a new home I mean... Not a war zone

I want to keep both tanks with fish, which is why I only wanted to move some of them. Was thinking of Putting the clowns in the new one definatley. Just wondering in terms of having fish such as the BN to keep the tank clean if I should move them too or just get some new fish/snails/anything to perform that function in the new setup as well as just to get some new tank mates. Plants etc. I will work out when I start setting up the new tank.

Also, I had the idea of (when/if my eheim 2217 finally from eBay >0) setting it up on my existing tank along with the 2213 with some old filters from the 2213 in it for a week or so to get the bacteria in it doin their thing then switching it onto the 300L to begin cycling the new water. Is this a good idea or should I just cycle it directly on the new tank with some old filter media?

Thanks for the help D

 

[OldMan47]

Round up to the proper schooling level of around 5 or 6.