Should I Move My Bristlenose To Another Tank?

[mwood2]

Well I have my next tank ready to go, its a 20G Long fully planted tank. Parameters seem fully stable as in that the Co2 seem to be at a perfect rate, ferts are being dosed and an air pump runs at night to keep oxygen levels normal. I currently have a Marineland C-220 rated for a 55 gallon hooked up on it too. I have not done a fishless cycle since I'm doing the planted non cycle where plants do the main filtration and the filter is there back up. I have introduced 4 Ghost shrimp into the tank which have been in there for a week now with no problems, all tank parameters are normal so I can slowly up the rate little by little. Would a BN pleco from my 29G fully cycled tank be ok to add am I better off starting with a small shoaling fish like tetras or rasbora added in smaller number. I can add them back to the 29G at any sign of danger of course.


So good idea or no?

 

[KittyKat]

Depending on if you're planning to feed.. I personally would not as I usually feed plecos every other day which could be too much for such a new tank.

Ghost shrimp are all very well, but you should still test the water as with any fish-less cycle, unless you are using fertilisers which contain ammonia in some form..

 

[mwood2]

I have been testing the water daily since I added and everything is perfect in the tank. So would adding shoaling fish 3-4 at a time (every few weeks) be ok at this point?

 

[fishlove75]

I can't really help with the non cycled plant filter idea as I don't know much about keeping live plants. However I can tell you that neon tetras are very particular about thier filtration, they generally don't do well in new tanks, they perfer mature tanks, generally 6 months cycled or longer. I would suggest a more hardy fish such as danio or something simillar to that to start with. Since you do have a back up tank in case of problems, I suppose you could try tetras but I would not do it.

good luck.

 

[KittyKat]

I have been testing the water daily since I added and everything is perfect in the tank. So would adding shoaling fish 3-4 at a time (every few weeks) be ok at this point?

This is how I do silent cycles: add mature media from another aquarium (no, the plants do not "do" the filtration, they use use up ammonia as fertiliser to give a much easier fish-in cycle while the filter matures, yes it is possible to have heavily planted fish tanks without filters, but it is not likely to be what you actually want), set up the plants, get everything growing, start adding 2-3 fish per week or even better get a school into an established aquarium and move one fish over every few days. Feed very, very little. Small water change regularly (this doesn't work so well if dosing ferts).

I can't really help with the non cycled plant filter idea as I don't know much about keeping live plants. However I can tell you that neon tetras are very particular about thier filtration, they generally don't do well in new tanks, they perfer mature tanks, generally 6 months cycled or longer. I would suggest a more hardy fish such as danio or something simillar to that to start with. Since you do have a back up tank in case of problems, I suppose you could try tetras but I would not do it.

Going by what mwood2 said, he isn't actually wanting an plants-for-filtration aquarium, but a silent cycle instead of fish-in or fish-less. It it a very uncommon method which is usually not recommended for anyone without decent experience in fish-keeping and in aquarium plants. I have actually done both in the past and can only reiterate the warning that they are NOT for beginners and NOT for people who don't understand what is going on (nowadays, that fish-less cycling is known about - silent has always been an improvement on traditional fish-in).
Basically, if done properly, by the time the fish go in, the tank may as well be considered established/mature and there should be no problems with any healthy fish being added. The thing to really look for is that the fish you get are fit as they will normally not get much food for the first few weeks.

 

[fishlove75]

Thanks for the information Kat. I have never kept live plants so i am always at a loss when it comes to the plant side.