Upgrading From 30l To 65l Or 50l (roughly)

[kiwifeather]

Hey all. I am relatively new to fish keeping, started about 6 months ago, with my 30L, I also shared a 90L betta/siamese fighting fish female soroity tank, which I have since left behind because I moved. The 30L heavily planted and is home to my crowntail male Siamese fighting fish/betta; Atlas. Orignally I had planned to just have him and some Malaysian Trumpet snails alone in this tank and get a bigger one as well when I could afford it (student budget in New Zealand where a brand new 65L is $110 just for the tank!), but of course, being foolish and easily persuaded, I trusted my pet store and bought 6 Ember Tetra's and two Peppered Corydoras as well! Obviously too much fish for a small tank. I am now down to only one cory, and the tank is a mess (algae because its a nightmare to clean, pest snails out of control). I am finally able to pick up something slightly bigger (65L or 50L) and move everyone out and start over all-together.
If I get the 50L I don't have to get new lights, filter or heater as it is all inclusive ($200) but ugh its a smaller tank so I'm not so sure on that one.

So my plan is atm:
(65L only)New Filter (because the 30L's is too small)
(65L only)New Heater (same reason as above)
(65L only)New lights.
New live plants, heavily planted tank (ones I have now are covered in algae and moss and pest snails)
New substrate (I'm thinking sand so its nice for the cories and also the MTS's will like burrowing in it. Either this or much larger, smooth stones)
Maybe a piece of bogwood or some other more natural-looking decoration (plus the old stuff is algae, snail and moss covered, with the exception of one small urn thing I might bring over to the new one)
Moving all current fish to this tank and selling the old one after a really good clean out. I can't keep two tanks (its forbidden) so old one had to go, but I would have loved to get a new fighter after it was cleaned out and restarted and have two. Ahhh well.
Get more cories.
Get something else, if the tank is big enough.

So in saying that my questions are.
65 or 50 Litres?
Should I put some water from mature tank in new one? A bit of substrate (its small b&w gravel)? Anything else to speed up cycling? I want my fish out of there asap.
Is sand an option? Will it work with live plants? The only sand my only pet store sell is something called "coral sand" is this okay? If sand is out what about big smooth stones? What is easier to keep clean?
Are peppered cories still too big for these tanks? Should I just sell the remaining one and get something else? My pet store does not sell any of the smaller cories only bronze, albino and peppered. No ottos either. They have some other varieties of catfish and algae eating bottom dwellers however.
Can I get anything else for this new tank, and does anyone have any suggestions if so? I know this is especially unlikely in the 50L unless no cories.
Anything else I should know???

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post!

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Hi... always go for the biggest tank and filter that your budget, space and time allow. If that means the 65L in your personal circumstances then go for that.
Water is next to pointless in moving across (the only exception being if you may have PH issues). Unless you have an under-gravel filtration system (Biorbs have these commonly) then moving any substrate across would again be pretty pointless. The vast, vast majority of any beneficial bacteria you may have grown live IN your filter...whether that be sponge, ceramic balls or noodles, or floss.... you need to move AS MUCH AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE of this stuff across to your new filter, this will then allow you to stock to what you had in the previous tank. Sand is definately an option, i have it and love it,but both this and pebbles/stones are straightforward enough to clean if you dedicate specific time to doing it,your Cory will also particulary love sand (but they prefer to live in groups of 6 plus to mimic their natural behaviour, something i feel maybe too much for a 65L tank ).You have to be very, very careful when adding more than one Betta fish... larger numbers of females would work, but a pair of either sex (ESPECIALLY males) will probably end in death/s.
You could look at adding more Ember Tetra, i had 14 of them at one point and they looked amazing. There are many, many other smaller fish you could look at with a tank of this size, same goes for a 50L.
Anyway, good luck with it all....

Terry.

 

[Questions?]

sell your cory, my him/her it must be dying of boredom sine they like schools.
you could do in 65L :
1 betta fish
8 ember tetras

or

1 betta fish
8 pygmy corys

or
1 betta
4 peppered corys( including the one you have, this would allow you to keep your peppered cory)