What Filter And Other Questions...

[wilsonian]

Hello,

I will be moving my 4ft tank from my parents to my new house however what I planned on doing is transfering the fish to a spare 3ft tank with the old tank water and old eheim 2213 filter while I setup the 4ft tank with a new TetraTec EX range filter.

Now several questions... ...sorry....

1, Whic EX model should i opt for? The tank is 4ftx1ftx1ft and I mainly have gouramis at the moment.
2, How long should I leave this "new tank" setup for to avoid the dredded new tank syndrome?
3, For a tank that will be mildly planted what tube(s) is are best suited for this. I have a T8 starter but think I may need a larger Wattage capactiy.
4, Whats the best chemical testing kits around at the moment. My old has just ran out and it was an crush tablet style.

Sorry for a bunch of noobie questions considering I've had the tank for so long but I really wana make sure

A, the filter is up for the job - since changing to sand medium the 2213 keep getting blocked up with sludge.
B, No fish die after transfering them
C, Tired of buying plants only to watch them rot away
D, Need to renew my kit so woudn't mind a bit of kit advice.

 

[waterdrop]

There are a couple of ways you could go about this. You could simply figure out a way to arrange all the media from the old eheim into one or more baskets of the Tetratec and transfer both the media and the fish at the same into the new tank which would of course have conditioned water that had been brought up to temperature.

The other way, more to my preference as far as safety is concerned, would be to transfer about 1/3 of the biomedia (the media that holds the most bacteria) from the old eheim to the new Tetratec and then fishless cycle the new big tank using the Add&Wait method with help from the members here. This would allow you to "qualify" the filter as truly being a running biofilter prior to transferring the fish. The risk of the other way, though small, is that the biofilms might be somewhat damaged and might not process correctly after the transfer of the media and the fish, leaving you in a fish-in cycling situation which is not a good place to be. Its a hard call though.

I'm not sure which size Tetratec (EX600, EX700, EX1200 I guess are the choices?) as I don't have the flow rate specs handy. Your tank is 30 US gallons I believe which would put you at 120 gallons per hour for a 5x turnover tank. Tank flow recommendations generally run between 4x and 10x+ depending on stocking plans and planted tank plans. Planted tank hobbyists often want 10x to try and clear all trace ammonia pockets so that bright lights won't be able to trigger algae. Manufacturer flow rates are often optimistic so if you are close between two models its often better to go with the higher one if you can.

Avoiding New Tank Syndrome simply means properly cycling the filter. Depending on your decision you'll need to follow our Fish-In or Fishless procedures and get help from the members here as you're doing it to avoid pitfalls.

Salifert makes the very best tests. The only downside is that they only sell them as individual tests and part of what makes them better is that in some cases you do need to mix a tablet/powder rather than have the convenience of premixed reagents. For premixed reagents, most of us use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and like it. Its test result colors have become a bit of a "lingua franca" in the beginners section at times. The Nutrafin Mini-Master is almost as good but some feel that the top of the nitrite and nitrate range is reached a little too quickly and high nitrite causes high nitrate readings perhaps a little too easily.

Plants are a harder hobby than fish in my opinion but there's lots of help around here and often whatever is giving you a problem can often be figured out. You are on the right track looking at your tube wattage to start things off. Lighting in the 0.8 to 1.5 watt/USgallon range (shy of 2w/g) puts you in the "low light technique" range (low-light being just a name and of course the light is really plenty bright) and sends you in search of low-light plant species. Driving your system at higher than 2w/g generally pushes you into the "high-tech technique" range and will use up nutrients very fast, especially the killer nutrient of carbon, often meaning you would need a pressurized CO2 system to provide enough of this particular nutrient. So low-light tanks are much more common unless you are really getting in to the planted tank hobby.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[junryu1999]

There are a couple of ways you could go about this. You could simply figure out a way to arrange all the media from the old eheim into one or more baskets of the Tetratec and transfer both the media and the fish at the same into the new tank which would of course have conditioned water that had been brought up to temperature.

The other way, more to my preference as far as safety is concerned, would be to transfer about 1/3 of the biomedia (the media that holds the most bacteria) from the old eheim to the new Tetratec and then fishless cycle the new big tank using the Add&Wait method with help from the members here. This would allow you to "qualify" the filter as truly being a running biofilter prior to transferring the fish. The risk of the other way, though small, is that the biofilms might be somewhat damaged and might not process correctly after the transfer of the media and the fish, leaving you in a fish-in cycling situation which is not a good place to be. Its a hard call though.

I'm not sure which size Tetratec (EX600, EX700, EX1200 I guess are the choices?) as I don't have the flow rate specs handy. Your tank is 30 US gallons I believe which would put you at 120 gallons per hour for a 5x turnover tank. Tank flow recommendations generally run between 4x and 10x+ depending on stocking plans and planted tank plans. Planted tank hobbyists often want 10x to try and clear all trace ammonia pockets so that bright lights won't be able to trigger algae. Manufacturer flow rates are often optimistic so if you are close between two models its often better to go with the higher one if you can.

Avoiding New Tank Syndrome simply means properly cycling the filter. Depending on your decision you'll need to follow our Fish-In or Fishless procedures and get help from the members here as you're doing it to avoid pitfalls.

Salifert makes the very best tests. The only downside is that they only sell them as individual tests and part of what makes them better is that in some cases you do need to mix a tablet/powder rather than have the convenience of premixed reagents. For premixed reagents, most of us use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and like it. Its test result colors have become a bit of a "lingua franca" in the beginners section at times. The Nutrafin Mini-Master is almost as good but some feel that the top of the nitrite and nitrate range is reached a little too quickly and high nitrite causes high nitrate readings perhaps a little too easily.

Plants are a harder hobby than fish in my opinion but there's lots of help around here and often whatever is giving you a problem can often be figured out. You are on the right track looking at your tube wattage to start things off. Lighting in the 0.8 to 1.5 watt/USgallon range (shy of 2w/g) puts you in the "low light technique" range (low-light being just a name and of course the light is really plenty bright) and sends you in search of low-light plant species. Driving your system at higher than 2w/g generally pushes you into the "high-tech technique" range and will use up nutrients very fast, especially the killer nutrient of carbon, often meaning you would need a pressurized CO2 system to provide enough of this particular nutrient. So low-light tanks are much more common unless you are really getting in to the planted tank hobby.

~~waterdrop~~

cAn i ask you guys how to use nutrafin clear fast? like where you put it and if the fish can be kept there at the same time u pour it