Am I Doing Everything Right?

[XxNayxX]

Hiya I'm kind of a newbie to tropical fish keeping and would just like to make sure that I am doing everything that I should be!

I have had a 20L tank for 3 months now which has fully cycled. In the tank I have 5 neons(had 6 but lost one yesterday, was probably due to all the commotion!) 2 guppy's, 1 danio, 1 siamese algae eater and a pair of sailfin mollys (which I only bought on monday). On thursday night I noticed the female molly was acting strange and 5 minutes later I spotted a baby at the top of the tank. She then went on to have 30+ more fry, 24 of which I have managed to place in a breeding net and 4 which are still beating the odds and surviving in the tank unfortunately the others became snacks for my guppies!

So since the baby boom in my 20L tank I have bought a juwel rekord 96 and set it up last night. One problem with the new tank is cloudy water.......could this just be down to the new gravel and sand? I have been advised that it will be safe to transfer my fish from the 20L tank into the new one after it has been up and running for 24 hours (of course making sure the temp and pH are the same as the old tank) and then giving the fry the run of the old one, but because of the cloudy water i'm not sure what to do! Shall I just leave it another day or 2 to see if the water clears?

The fry are doing well and I am feeding them crushed up tetrafin flake food 4 times a day but I dont like the idea of keeping them in the net for too long. I know this sounds sad (haha) but I feel really attatched to the little guys and would be gutted if none of them made it!

And I was also wondering what other additions would be good for my new tank when its all up and running properly, would angel fish be a good choice?

I will be really grateful for any advice that you could give me!

Thanks

 

[TetraLinz]

The cloud is either a bacterial bloom, or, as you suspect, dust from the gravel. Neither will harm the fish, but you will be putting the fish into an uncycled tank What I suggest you do, if possible, is to move some (about a 1/4) of the filter media (sponge or whatever is inside the filter) in the 20ltr across to the Juwel filter to speed up the cycling process, and transfer the fish across to the 96ltr. After that, get a test kit (API liquid master test kit is the best on the market) and check daily for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and change 15% every day until ammonia and nitrite read 0ppm. Reduce feeding to once every other day (the fish won't starve), and remove any food left after about 3 minutes.

As for the fry, yeah, leave them in the 20ltr. They'll never survive a cycle. Have a look on Ebay for fry foods such as Liquifry and decapsulated brine shrimp.

 

[OldMan47]

If that 20L is a 20 gallon long, then you have enough space in it for all the fish except the molly fry. In that case you could try cloning the filter from the 20 to the new tank. It will give the cycle a big head start in the new tank. This soon after setting up a new tank, I would try to keep the mollies in the old tank breeder along with the adults so that you can get at least a partial cycle done on the new 96 litre tank. That way nobody will need to try to survive an uncycled tank.