Upgrading!

[CrystalClear16]

So got permission from the landlord to upgrade my little 50L to a more respectable 125L (leaning towards a Roma) and have checked with the building contractors that the floor can take it.

BUT we have a small apartment and so don't have space to have my 50L going while cycling the 125. Will it be enough to move over all the decorations and sand? I will of course need to add more sand. Plus the new filter will be bigger, will it work to put the old media in the new filter? What is the best, most efficiant way of doing this?

I have clown loaches which of course need a mature set up. (Don't worry, I am fully aware they will outgrow the 125L. We are upgrading the tank as they grow and as we get bigger appartments! I expect the 125L to be suitable for a year, maybe two. Please correct me if you disagree).

Also another, slightly more technical question. If the tank were to leak all over the floor, would it leak down into the appartment below? The contractors say the floor is concrete and theoretically can handle 4 tons, so I assume we only need to worry about potential damage to our own place? Need to check our insurance policy.

Would be really grateful for some help here, I have never upgraded before!

 

[vfg10]

hi
you must be very exited with the new tank

IMO you can put the old filter in the new tank and run both of them at the same time I think that is called cloning and after 2 months you can take out the old one and just have running the new one

I don't think you are going to have any leak from the concrete is very good.

 

[Wills]

Yeah concrete floors are not an issue its just the wooden floors but a 125ltr is not going to be a problem at all regardless of flooring I had a 125 on my wooden floors for a while till I upgraded to my 240 and still no problems

When it comes to upgrading move all of your media to the new filter and you will be sorted, I did that when I upgraded 125 to 240 and I was fine, just keep an eye on your water tests and react to them as needed.

With the clowns, personally I believe they need a 4 foot tank to grow upto a reasonable size. But as your going as they grow it should be okay and the 125 will be much better than the 60 How big are they now and what other fish do you have? Any ideas what you want to add?

Wills

 

[CrystalClear16]

Yes we are very excited Good to get confirmation on the logistics side of things What are other opinions on 'cloning' vs moving the media?

At the moment the 6 clown loaches are only babies with the largest about 2" and the rest between 1" - 1.5", but we want to upgrade before they feel cramped. We also have a couple of neons and platys. I imagine when all 6 of our clowns are full grown we would need at least a 60 gal, more if we have other fish too.

I don't think we will add more fish, just stick with the clown loaches (they are our babies ^^) and possibly add a few more neons because they need some friends.

 

[Wills]

When Clown loaches start to get to their full size (around 10 inches though some get bigger than this I believe the biggest in captivity is around 16 inches at the moment) they need a 125 gallon tank around 6 foot size. But while they are around 5-7 inches a 4 foot tank around 65/75 gallons will be okay. I would aim for the 4 foot pretty soon and then the 6 foot in quite a few years time.

To be fair though because of the nature of your plans with the upgrades I would think you could plan to add more fish to this tank. I would consider fish that will be happy in a 125 liter for life but also that will do well in the larger community as well. Because lets consider the long term plans of your fish keeping with the clowns, once you have 5, 10 inch fish in 6 foot tank, in 5/6 years you wont really want to keep just small fish like neons and platties with them will you? So you could perhaps consider some medium sized cichlids or gourami that would work in the 3 foot but also the bigger tanks. You could consider mainly peaceful fish really, like a pair of pearl gourami would work in a 3 foot tank but also bigger tanks. And as for cichlids you could consider Guinacaras, very very slow growing but they do get to a chunky 5 inches and get some great golden colours on them! But they do take ages to get any size at all past 2 inches like maybe even slower than the clowns to get to adult size.

Wills

 

[CrystalClear16]

Thats a good idea, I had planned for when they would grow but not considered changing the tank mates accordingly! Also, great news on needing a 125 gallon - the perfect excuse Hopefully I have a few years to save though!

I think I am worried about adding bigger tank mates at the moment because I am worried about cramping them. I am not sure exactly when I will be able to afford an upgrade after buying the 125L, so I feel like I would be rushing myself by adding more fish. I would hate to have cramped clowns, but equally I would be crushed if I had to give them away so I am airing on the side of caution.