Working On Tank

[Gladders1980]

Hi all

New here but looking for some advice.

I'm going to replant my tank soon, and most likely add some more sand substrate. The problem I have is that I have no other tank to store my fish in. I currently have 4 peppered corys, 4 glowlight tetras, 6 neon tetras and 2 platys. Whilst am working on the tank, can I store them in the bags they come in from the LFS without tieing them so more oxygen gets to them? I also could put some in some plastic containers without the lids on. How long can they stay in these bags and containers without a filter?

Also when I first put the substrate in it turned the water all cloudy, even though I washed it throughly before hand, will the fish be ok in this cloudy water from adding more substrate once I've finished?

cheers for the help.

 

[divetime84]

yeah you should be ok keeping them in the bags as long they are kept at the temp of the tank as it will kill them well before any thing else and if you put them in the bags leave about 60% air and they will be ok for hours.
so you can put them in a bath if you tie the bags

and what is floating in the tank will be ok if you have your filter going just have a look when it has clears to make sure your filter is not getting blocked

good luck

 

[Gilli]

When I changed my tanks over I bought a large cheap plastic tub (always handy) from my local DIY store. Put all the fish & plants in and also the filter and heater! This way you can leave them in there for as long as you want without any worries and fiddle with your tank over a couple of days and leave it until the sand settles.

 

[Gladders1980]

When I changed my tanks over I bought a large cheap plastic tub (always handy) from my local DIY store. Put all the fish & plants in and also the filter and heater! This way you can leave them in there for as long as you want without any worries and fiddle with your tank over a couple of days and leave it until the sand settles.

good idea never thought of that, i've got a large plastic tub we use as a toy box i could use that

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with the big box idea. I've picked these up before for fish use. If you are in doubt about your ability to truly clean the toy one, just pick up a new one and clean it, they aren't that much. WD

 

[Gilli]

When I changed my tanks over I bought a large cheap plastic tub (always handy) from my local DIY store. Put all the fish & plants in and also the filter and heater! This way you can leave them in there for as long as you want without any worries and fiddle with your tank over a couple of days and leave it until the sand settles.

good idea never thought of that, i've got a large plastic tub we use as a toy box i could use that

I expect its quite obvious, but just incase it's not I also ran the filter and heater while in the tub!

 

[Gladders1980]

Yeah it was cheers Gilli.

Waterdop, its ok i have a spare toybox that has no toys in it so can use that, will throw it away if can't clean it, or keep it as a spare emergency tank

 

[MikeO]

I also picked up one of those big flexible plastic/rubbery type "tub" things from ASDA/(WalMart) for like 4 quid. Cant remember the capacity but it was plenty big enough to hold all my fish for a few hours while a did a complete deep clean / rescape of my tank. Its only a once a year event for me, so cheaper the better and this seemed an ideal solution.

 

[OldMan47]

If you do not have too many fish, you can even use your water change bucket to house fish for a day or two. Just equip it with your filter, heater and an air stone and you will be good to go for a short time.

 

[waterdrop]

I had a whole system in a bucket going for a while, with filter, heater and even plants, placed on the workbench so that the two-tube fluorescents over the workbench were providing light to the plants. WD

 

[Rynofasho]

Makes me feel better about potentially switching to sand.

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with you though (in the other thread) that if you hold the gravel in your bare hand and it doesn't like it cuts the skin or is scratchy, it should be more or less as good as sand for the cories (a lot of cories come from really muddy river areas anyway, so I doubt we're going to make them fully happy. WD