Upgrading to a larger tank

[ShellBell]

Hi All, I'm quite new to the site but have already found some great advice reading through other threads. We have had a little 10l tank running for approx 7 months with just a few fish in (tetras, corys, shrimp and recently added emblers which have just had a baby) and have been wanting to get a larger tank for a while now, a few days ago the pump stopped working so we made the decision to get the larger tank.
The larger tank has been filled with new water, new gravel and of course a new pump, the small tank has a temporary pump in to keep the fish living but it is very crowded as the old pump housing has the heater and the light so I can't remove it to create more room. I'm looking for advice on how quickly I can move my fish across to the new tank without causing too much stress or harm to the fish. Any help and advice would be appreciated, TIA

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

There are obviously some stocking issues here. What is the pH, GH, and KH of your water? You can find this information out by going to your local water providers website or by calling them. (We need actual numbers. (Ex. ppm)

Most tetras need quite a large tank. What size were you thinking?

 

[ShellBell]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

There are obviously some stocking issues here. What is the pH, GH, and KH of your water? You can find this information out by going to your local water providers website or by calling them. (We need actual numbers. (Ex. ppm)

Most tetras need quite a large tank. What size were you thinking?

Sorry I should have said we have set up a RIO 125. I added 15ml of water conditioner and 75ml of biological enhancer on day 1 and 30ml enhancer on day 2
Currently we have 2 x tetra, 2 x shrimp, 1 x cory and 2 and a bit emblers. We did have more tetras/corys but lost a few over the months to tetra disease etc
The local providers site doesn't state whether it is in ppm but I'm presuming you mean these: Nitrate 7.5, Nitrite 0.002, PH 7.2
I have a test kit due for delivery so will have a better idea tomorrow

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Wait for the test kit tomorrow. Test the water, and if you have 0ppm nitrite, 0ppm Ammonia, and <20ppm nitrate, then you are good to add fish.

Both Cory’s and tetras need to be in groups of 6 or more. (6 is the minimum suggestion - 8+ is better)

How long (in/cm) is the tank?

(Your pH fits most tetras and Cory’s. Is there anywhere you can find your GH? (General Hardness)

 

[ShellBell]

Wait for the test kit tomorrow. Test the water, and if you have 0ppm nitrite, 0ppm Ammonia, and <20ppm nitrate, then you are good to add fish.

Both Cory’s and tetras need to be in groups of 6 or more. (6 is the minimum suggestion - 8+ is better)

How long (in/cm) is the tank?

(Your pH fits most tetras and Cory’s. Is there anywhere you can find your GH? (General Hardness)

The plan is to add more tetras and corys to get them back in schooling groups once my tank is ready to go Should I wait to ensure my original fish are happy in the new tank or increase their numbers asap?

My tank is 81cm in length, and I think my GH is "slightly hard" 57.6mg/l (not too sure on this)

 

[Essjay]

UK water companies use very misleading words for water hardness, we need to use numbers. Is your 57.6 mg/l calcium or calcium carbonate? If you're not sure, post a screenshot from your water company's website.
The reason for asking you to check is that tetras and cories are soft water fish while endlers are hard water fish.

If you have gravel, you really need to replace it with sand as cories do much better over sand than gravel. Now is the time to do that before you move the fish over. Argos play sand is the cheapest if you can manage to find some.

Can you take the filter media out of the old filter? If you can, put it in the Juwel filter where the black sponge is supposed to go, and move the fish over at the same time. The filter contains a lot of your bacteria so if you move media and fish together you'll move the bacteria at the same time.
If you can buy some live plants, they will also help. Floating plants are the best - water sprite, Amazon frogbit, water lettuce or even some stems of elodea or hornwort left floating. These do two things - they take up ammonia faster than the filter bacteria and they provide shade for the fish. Nearly all the fish we buy come from rivers or lakes with overhanging vegetation and they don't like bright light overhead.

Once you have everything moved, test the water every day for ammonia and nitrite and do a water change if either show above zero. Once they have been zero for a couple of weeks, then you can increase the numbers of the cories and tetras - make sure you get the same species.



I used to have a Rio 125, nice tank. Tips
- don't use the black sponge, leave it in the cupboard. Carbon is not needed on a routine basis.
- if you have the green sponge it doesn't remove nitrate, treat it as though it were a blue sponge.
- buy a length of filter wool off a roll from a fish shop or Ebay and use one of the white pads as a template to cut it up which is much cheaper than buying Juwel white pads as they will go holey when washed and need replacing regularly.
- ignore what they say about replacing the sponges, they will last for years. Just squeeze them in old tank water you take out during a water change.

 

[ShellBell]

UK water companies use very misleading words for water hardness, we need to use numbers. Is your 57.6 mg/l calcium or calcium carbonate? If you're not sure, post a screenshot from your water company's website.
The reason for asking you to check is that tetras and cories are soft water fish while endlers are hard water fish.

If you have gravel, you really need to replace it with sand as cories do much better over sand than gravel. Now is the time to do that before you move the fish over. Argos play sand is the cheapest if you can manage to find some.

Can you take the filter media out of the old filter? If you can, put it in the Juwel filter where the black sponge is supposed to go, and move the fish over at the same time. The filter contains a lot of your bacteria so if you move media and fish together you'll move the bacteria at the same time.
If you can buy some live plants, they will also help. Floating plants are the best - water sprite, Amazon frogbit, water lettuce or even some stems of elodea or hornwort left floating. These do two things - they take up ammonia faster than the filter bacteria and they provide shade for the fish. Nearly all the fish we buy come from rivers or lakes with overhanging vegetation and they don't like bright light overhead.

Once you have everything moved, test the water every day for ammonia and nitrite and do a water change if either show above zero. Once they have been zero for a couple of weeks, then you can increase the numbers of the cories and tetras - make sure you get the same species.



I used to have a Rio 125, nice tank. Tips
- don't use the black sponge, leave it in the cupboard. Carbon is not needed on a routine basis.
- if you have the green sponge it doesn't remove nitrate, treat it as though it were a blue sponge.
- buy a length of filter wool off a roll from a fish shop or Ebay and use one of the white pads as a template to cut it up which is much cheaper than buying Juwel white pads as they will go holey when washed and need replacing regularly.
- ignore what they say about replacing the sponges, they will last for years. Just squeeze them in old tank water you take out during a water change.

It's states calcium

My old filter had cartridges rather than the sponges (Marina 360) can I still put these into the new tank?

Great tips there about the new tank! I was looking at replacement sponges and seen they were quite costly! As my previous tank was so small I didn't have much plants so I will certainly look into the types suggested

Thanks

 

[Essjay]

Yes, you can move them over. As you don't need the Juwel black carbon sponge, put them there instead. Leave them there for a couple of months then remove them - if there's more than one cartridge, remove one, then a month later the next and so on till they're all gone.

mg/l calcium is not one of the units used in fish keeping so we need to convert it into the two units that are used.
57.6 mg/l calcium = 8dH and 144 ppm. It is at the top end of soft.

This is fine for tetras and cories but a bit on the low side for endlers. I would increase the numbers of tetrass and cories once you are sure the new tank has settled but don't get any more endlers. Though I assume you have at least 1 male and 1 female is you've found a baby so there will be more

 

[Ch4rlie]

It's states calcium

My old filter had cartridges rather than the sponges (Marina 360) can I still put these into the new tank?

Great tips there about the new tank! I was looking at replacement sponges and seen they were quite costly! As my previous tank was so small I didn't have much plants so I will certainly look into the types suggested

Thanks

I know the marina cartridges you speak of, presumably from a S hang on back filter.

Yes, put those cartridges into the new filter if you can, cut it up if you have to, don’t worry about plastic bit, take that out and just put in the media itself in the new filter, the bacteria will spread no problem and perhaps after a month or two take out the old marina filter media as the bacteria should have spread to the new filter media.

Essjay has pointed out a number of good fast growing plants that will help settle your tank faster in terms of water parameters, basically the more plants, the better but go for easy to maintain plants, not hair grass, most red leaves or very fine leaves plants as these are usually higher demanding plants.

Another few choices may be anubias, java fern, cryptocorynes, java moss(this can grow crazy), elodea/anacharis(can grow very long if enough nutrients), vallis and floating plants like silvania natan are all commonly stocked at many LFS and are easy to maintain plants with most standard set up tanks.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Ok, your tank is long enough for most tetra species. (Do you know what species it is? You can upload a picture so we can ID it for you)

I concur on the fast growing plants - they will help remove unwanted ammonia. Anacharis, java fern, Anubias, Java Moss, etc. are all great choices.

(Sorry for the late reply)

 

[Essjay]

Anacharis = elodea

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Anacharis = elodea

I was concurring.

I concur on the fast growing plants

 

[Essjay]

Since ShellBell is in the UK s/he might not know what anacharis is

 

[ShellBell]

Ok, your tank is long enough for most tetra species. (Do you know what species it is? You can upload a picture so we can ID it for you)

I concur on the fast growing plants - they will help remove unwanted ammonia. Anacharis, java fern, Anubias, Java Moss, etc. are all great choices.

(Sorry for the late reply)

I have neon tetras, albino corys and santa maria bleeding heart endlers

No worries on the delayed response, I kept up my investigation work and looked into some plants. I was also advised by others

 

[ShellBell]

Since ShellBell is in the UK s/he might not know what anacharis is

Not without googling it ha ha