new 55 gallon

[angel_lover]

hi im new to this website so i dont know if i am in the right spot this time but here goes.i just got a 55 gallon(freshwater)for my angels,they are currently in a 20 gallon but they are getting really big so i decided to get them a new home.i've had the tank runnung for 10 days now and the ammonia is at 0,pH is at 7.0 but the nitrite is very high 5.0 or higher,so i was just wondering how long i should run the tank?should i put live plants?basically do's and don'ts...anything i can do tp help the water and make the move less stressfull..oh i only have 2 angels...well 2 big ones and about 10-12 of their babies..thank you very much

 

[baseballfan111]

a very common begginer problem is they think that you can cycle with out fish.(you can but you have 2 buy a product and you cant have it with fish) what i think you should do is get some guppies, or danios and use them 2 cycle the tank, it will probley take 2-3-4 weeks, angels can not cycle a tank. When you are done cycling move the guppies or danios 2 a diff tank, they might nip at the angel fish. i would get 6 guppies or danios for the cycling. have fun!

 

[angel_lover]

i do have 2 guppies in there...you think i should grab another 4..what if they start having babies then im stuck with a load of them

 

[canis_lupus]

get all males or get danios

 

[sandyd]

I may be wrong, but i would think if your nitrites are that high, you should start to see the nitrates coming up soon. If your ammonia is 0, then they have already made it through the worst of it, as i think ammonia is the worst for the fish. I would do a 10% water change to lower it a bit, but your nitrates should be coming up soon, which means you are almost in the final stage of cycling. Are the fish showing any signs of having a problem? Sandy

 

[angel_lover]

ahh a reply..lol..well i just have the few guppies and ya they seem to fine.when i first put them in they were a little stressed but they seem fine now.i guess i have to go buy a nitrate test kit because my kit came with everything but a nitrate test.the guy at the store told me i would only need to test for ammonia,pH and nitrite.should i go buy one or just keep checking the nitrite??oh and does anybody have any advice on putting in real plants..i've heard they can create so called "bad" bacteria

 

[sandyd]

To tell you the truth, i use my nitrate test kit more than i use any other. I have 6 tanks now, and once they are cycled, you have to keep track of the nitrates as well because if they go up, it tells you that you need to be doing more water changes than you are. I also have live plants in all of my tanks, i am not sure what they are, but i read somewhere that they actually help the tank by removing the ammonia from the tank. There are people who only use plants to take care of their tanks, meaning that there is no filter system at all in the tank. I think plants also make it alot nicer to look at. I also have a 55 and if i was to not use plants, i would spend many dollars on adding other stuff to the tank. Plants kind of take up all that extra space in there, and help to keep tthe water better in the tank. Good luck and keep us posted. Sandy

 

[Great Lakes]

I may be going way out on a limb here and get some flak for suggesting this,...but here goes..

I would have just put the whole 20gal occupants and all into the 55gal, along with the established filter. This would only equal slightly more than a 50 percent water change and voila!!! you're done.

Sounds insanely simple, but sometimes we can't see the forest cause of the trees.

 

[angel_lover]

oh you guys are confusing me ...i see what your saying but i guess its a little late for that..actually the water in the 55 gallon seems to be in alot better shape than the water in the 20...so i dont know....anyhow its been runnig for 10 days?should i run it for 2 to 3 weeks.everyone i ask says something different..im confused

 

[AquaNut]

Okay angel.. as someone already said, if your amonia is at 0, you're already past the worst part of cycling the new tank. I would say you should move your angels, along with some of their water, to the new tank. You can leave the guppies in there or put them in the 20 gallon, but by all means, keep them for live food for your angel fry! Reproducing guppies = free live food for your angels. Also, DEFINITELY have live plants. As somebody already mentioned, they filter the water, using leftover food and waste as fertilizer. They also produce oxygen during the day, but be sure to run an airstone at night if you have many plants, as they give off CO2 at night. In particular, angels like to spawn on Amazon sword plants (echinodorus). Also, angels and Amazon swords both like their water to be a little bit soft and acidic. I'm curious what your pH in the 20 gallon where they spawned is? Oh.. also, depending on what kind of filters you're using, it would be helpful to add some of the media from your 20 gallon filter to the 55 gallon filter (move the bacteria with the fish). Good luck!

 

[angel_lover]

thank you very much that helped alot ...i moved the angels today and they dont seem stressed at all,10 minutes after i put then in the tank they were begging for food like they always do....i gave the guppies back to my friend next door who gave them to me then moved my tetras and dwarf gourmais(i think thats what they are called)from my 10 gallon into the 20.now i am wondering if i should buy some fancy tailed guppies for the 10 or move my betta bubbles,who is currently in a bowl,in the 10 gallon......decisions decisions...hehe thank you everyone who responded and sorry if i seemed annoying....just didnt want anything to happen to my babies

 

[Alien Anna]

a very common begginer problem is they think that you can cycle with out fish.(you can but you have 2 buy a product and you cant have it with fish) what i think you should do is get some guppies, or danios and use them 2 cycle the tank, it will probley take 2-3-4 weeks, angels can not cycle a tank. When you are done cycling move the guppies or danios 2 a diff tank, they might nip at the angel fish. i would get 6 guppies or danios for the cycling. have fun!

You can certainly cycle without fish - in fact, it's recommended! And no, you don't have to buy a product. There are various ways of doing it, but ammonia, fish food and I've even seen urine used! You can speed it up by getting filter innards and gravel from an already established tank.

For a situation like this (i.e. upgrading an old tank), the easiest thing to do would probably do a direct transplant of the contents of the 20 gal into the 50 gal. I actually did this yesterday so I know it works!

What you do is use the old filter, old water and old gravel (being careful to transfer it quickly to preserve the bacteria). Put your fish in a bucket of tank water, spread the old gravel carefully over the top of the new gravel in the new tank, and set up your old filter in the new tank. You should run the old filter concurrently with the new (probably bigger) filter for a few weeks, to make sure the new filter is well matured with bacteria. Add matured water (you'll probably have 10 gal that isn't in the bucket with the fish), top it up with fresh water, allowing space for the bucketful, and finally add your fish. It usually takes no more than a week for the bacteria in the old stuff to colonise the rest of the gravel, new filter and water and if you're lucky, you won't even get a nitrite spike. Plus you'll have happy, happy fish.

What I actually did was even more amazingly cunning than that - I am using one of those cheap filters driven by an air-pump which I stuffed with the cut-up contents of the old internal filter from my previous tank. The only complication was that this pump had failed a few days before, so I was worried the bacteria had died off. However, there had been a flow of oxygenated water through it, from a matured sponge filter I had running in there, so I thought it would be better than entirely new innards. You know, that cheap filter is working great. Is it possible that these elaborate and expensive filters are all a con?

I ought to add that all my tanks have plants in them, which can act like a natural filter.