How long will this hold up?

[Bethany]

I acquired a 20 gallon tank the other day, and it only had an undergravel filter, which I hate, so I'm not using it.

My fish are in it and doing fine, but I'm temporarily using my old ten gallon filter and a bubble stone, which thus far is working, but I know it's not too realistic and healthy long term.

I'm hoping in the next two weeks to get out and purchase my next 20 gallon filter. Do you think what I'm doing right now should be fine for two weeks? I hope so...I mean all my fish have their bright colors and the tank is clear [I kept the 10 gallons of water from the old tank and some old gravel to keep the good bacteria, so no new tank syndrome]. The tank's clean and lively, just want to make sure I'm not pushing it.

 

[haynchinook334]

what fish do you have in the 20?
how much do you feed the fish?
planing to do water changes every other day?

 

[BushFishRox]

just keep up on the water changes, perhaps doing some extra water changes as well...

 

[ProblEmZ]

Got a test kit? You can monitor when you may need to change water.

 

[Bethany]

I'm going to do water changes for sure. the ank has 2 gouramis, a cichlid, blue ram, pleco, 6 danios, baby parrot. but, all of the fish are still pretty small so they don't dirty the tank too much, and i suppose, being that they are well fed, I can cut there food in half per day, just to avoid too many leftovers.

 

[haynchinook334]

I'm going to do water changes for sure. the ank has 2 gouramis, a cichlid, blue ram, pleco, 6 danios, baby parrot. but, all of the fish are still pretty small so they don't dirty the tank too much, and i suppose, being that they are well fed, I can cut there food in half per day, just to avoid too many leftovers.

GOOD answer. water changes are key. so IMO it'll work. if you where closer i'll give you a 20gal filter.

 

[Mattyou]

Under Gravel filters with an Air Stone will work forever as long as you dont pile in the fish. Back in the DAY, it is all we had and I kept hundreds of fish alive with an Air Pump and Under Gravel Filters Only.

 

[Bethany]

yeah, undergravels do work, but my thing is in my experience they've always gotten ready gross and having to change everything out to clean it was a pain. and the undergravel it came with was pretty gross and had like old caked in algae inside the tubes that I couldn't get off. i like the other filters better mainly because if there's a problem or break out in the tank changing the filter is easier than taking everything out and i can just water change

 

[Trippingpara]

Too bad you need a filter now. I'll be in Erie visiting my family in Aug. I could've brought you a 20 gal filter. You will be fine with the 10g filter and air stone for now. Just keep up on your water changes and closely monitor the water parameters.

Did you grow up in Erie? I was born and raised there. Went to Academy High.

 

[Bethany]

Actually yeah lol, I went to Academy, but now it's the Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy lol. When did you leave Erie?