Existing aquarium water

[dualexcess]

Hi. I have been keeping fish for about 8 years. I have a 36 gallon community tank, but was thinking of using one of the smaller ones we began with to keep a few fish in my bedroom. It's only 14 gallons, but that would fit nicely in here, and I could enjoy a school of small colorful friends.

It still has some gravel in it. I'm wondering if I should leave that gravel in since it's been a while since it's housed any fish; was a fry tank a couple of years ago, and also thinking about adding some water from the other aquarium--if that's a good idea for beginning a cycle?

I plan to purchase a 55 gallon aquarium around the end of the year, and I guess I'm more comfortable in moving up a size with the existing plants, fish and water, than starting a new smaller one--wait, is this starting to sound dumb? I think my question is how much should I take from my current tank to put in this small one...

Please advise. And thank you.

 

[cheekeyarab]

You will need to clean your tank and gravel thoroughly first as, if I read your post right, it has been sitting empty for quite a while.
If you place the filter media from this smaller tank in your current one for a while it will enable the beneficial bacteria to build up on it.
Then you could move some gravel from your current tank into the smaller one. Do a partial water change on your tank and add this water to your smaller tank along with the filter media. If I understand this technique correctly then it would mean an instantly cycled tank.

Edit: Just had a quick re-read of your post and wanted to add that I would recommend 50% old tank water and 50% dechlorinated tap water just in case you're putting in tank water with slightly high nitrate levels.

 

[dualexcess]

Thanks for such a complete answer. I hadn't thought of doing that with the filter; it seems an excellent idea. I did discover this evening that the pH has increased dramatically, so I'll keep an eye on that for a bit before next week's water change, and go from there. Hmm, just decided to be clearer about that. It's just plain a high number, higher than my tap water, which is already high, and I got to thinking that may be why the pleco I put in there died--plus the water here is much softer than where I used to live and even though the science of it all does sort of pass me by, I'm just wanting to make sure it's all stable and not zooming around.

 

[cheekeyarab]

Definitely a good idea to try and correct any issues before starting a new tank. I am curious as to what is raising your ph. Have you recently adding any new rocks to your tank or done anything else different to normal?
If you can't find the problem I suggest starting a new thread to request advice on altering ph.
If the ph isn't of the scale, it may be wiser to choose fish for the ph rather than try and change the ph to suit certain fish.

Good Luck!

 

[dualexcess]

Well, I do figure that the fish I have are probably well accustomed to it, as they're all generally healthy, and most are at least 2 years old. And so I thought maybe the conditions were too different for the pleco to handle. But it's pretty high, so I'd have to see which other fish prefer that sort of level, if I do nothing about it. I checked for ammonia, fine there.

I don't test it often, just got a bug to do it during the maintenance yesterday, and the test water was *blue.* Now I'm reading up to see if there are buffering issues, but yes, I may need to ask for advice there, and hope the answers are not too mathematical to sort out!

I did replace a couple plants, and removed a piece of preserved wood. But the rocks are the same.

Either way, next weekend I'm going to take some of your suggestions and make an experiment of it in the small tank, without adding any actual fish, of course.

 

[rdd1952]

You are wasting your time using tank water from your current tank in the new one. There are no beneficial bacteria in the water column. They are all present in the filter media, gravel, etc. Using gravel and filter media from the existing tank will definitely speed the cycling period. Just fill the new tank with clean, dechlorinated water, add the media from the other tank, turn the heater temp up to the mid to upper 80s, add some extra aeration and start adding ammonia to do a fishless cycle. With the seeded bacteria, it shouldn't take too long to cycle.