New Tank...

[millie1]

so, my office is almost done up..... and is missing something..... a fish tank... lol


my office is upstairs so cant be anything too big.....

my cabinet its going on is 4 foot.... i need some space for my files etc.....

i was thinking 2 foot by 1 foot by whatever high.... is this too heavy for an upstairs room

ive had a 17 litre upstairs before in my room........

any help?

 

[mychilly]

I would suggest either a 5 gal or 10 gal. I would do the 10 gal.

 

[millie1]

okay..... how heavy is that?

 

[jonny_dw]

I have a 120 litre tank upstairs with no problems at all an average 2foot by 1 foot tank is around 60 litres, the rule is roughly 1kg for 1 litre so including tank is around 70ish kg. It will be fine

 

[Just_Another_One]

I'd be more worried about the cabinet you going to place it on........make sure it is sturdy enough as a 60 lt tank with water/gravel/deco would be reaching around 200 lbs.


Floors are ment to withstand much more than that but lots of cabinets are not made with the proper materials so just make sure you can trust it.

 

[millie1]

its a set of drawers.... which are 4 foot long and 2 foot depth i think.... they are more than sturdy....

empty - it takes 2 people to lift them lol



another question - if i want to kick start a cycle into a smaller tank...... what do i need to use out of my bigger/fully cycled tank

thanks

 

[fatheadminnow]

10 gallon tank. 8.33 pounds/gallon. 10 x 8.33 = 83.3 pounds of water.

You do not need to worry about the floor, and it sounds like the cabinet is sturdy enough, so all is good.

What you want to do to kick start the cycle is take some mature filter media from your fully cycled tank and put it in your new tanks filter. Foam would be the best to take form your fully cycled tank. Then replace the foam you took from your fully cycled tank with a new piece.

You do not need to take that much mature filter media out, as you dont want to take too much out of your fully cycled tank and then realize that you need to cycle that one again.

Just take out enough to give your new tank a kick start.

-FHM

 

[millie1]

ahhh ok thanks

im going to set my 17 litre back up again then get another tank as well as that.... probs another 20+ litre for a betta

 

[millie1]

just to askk....

i have 2 sponges in my big tank.... the filter in the little tank isnt big enough to hold one of the big sponges....

can i cut some sponge off the mature filter.... put a new sponge into replace that -

and then put the mature media one in the little tank and fill that up with the more new sponge??

follow tha? lol

i just dont wan tto mess up my big tank and re-cycle it?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yup, do exactly that.

Cut the size of foam you need that will fit into your smaller filter.

-FHM

 

[millie1]

thank you! though i was going insain lmao!

ohh yay another tank being set up tonight lol!!

how long does it take for more bacteria to grow on a sponge.. if thers bacteria on the sponge next to it in the filter?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Not quite sure how fast bacteria colonize just because there is a lot of factors that come into play, i.e. pH, temp, how much ammonia is present, flow rate size of surface for bacteria to colonize etc...

But you will notice it will not take too long, you might be cycled right away since you had to cut a piece down to size to fit in your filter.

You just have to go by the process of a fishless cycle and see where that takes you.

If your ammonia and nitrite are at zero, and you are getting a nitrate reading the next day after you have added the mature filter media to the new filter and added the proper amount of ammonia, you might be looking at a week of cycling then.

So just go by the process of fishless cycling and see where that takes you.

Like I said, it will go a lot quicker.

-FHM