Moved my 55 gallon to a new house

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
C

Catlady

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2009
15
0
0
South GA
Hi! I am new to the forum! I have been lurking for a few days checking out all of the set ups. You guys have some really great looking tanks!

I own a 55 gallon tank. The set up I have is a aquarium kit I purchased from Walmart that came with the tank lights and lids, and a filter thank hangs over the side of the tank.

I have had the tank set up with the exact items it came with, plain gravel(little rocks) and an air pump with an air stone for the look of pretty bubbles.

I moved to another city and moved my tank over to the new places yesterday. I was advised to bring the water from the old tank, and the gravel however there was a major spill on the way over to the new house and I lost all of my water and gravel.

I started over with well rinsed play ground sand for the substrate, and new water. It is decorated with various rocks and fake plants.

The fish currently in the tank are as follows (i may not have the correct names)

2 Bala Sharks
3 cardinal tetras
3 black neons
1 black molly
4 golden dojo loaches
1 unknown algae eater/sucker fish/ fish that looks like a rock with fins= no sure what he is fish


I have added Stress Zyme to treat the water.


Do you have any tips to help this tank thrive? I hope to become more educated about fish keeping from this site. I look forward to learning from you guys!
 
:welcome: to MFK!

The water is useless. You did not need the old tank water at all. If you still have the established filter media from the previous setup, that is actually all you needed to keep the water conditions stable.

I might add that most unfortunately, your bala sharks will not fit well in the 55g. They have the tendency to outgrow the 55g by reaching 12 inches in length. In time, they may attempt to consume your tetras.

I assume your sucker fish is a pleco. Is that correct? If this particular fish is one of the species of Pterygoplichthys, the 55g will be unable to accommodate it in the long run. Plecos of Pterygoplichthys genus grow to 12 inches and over. That's too large for a 55g unfortunately. I'd advise replacing that fish with smaller species such as clown pleco (Panaque maccus) or bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp.). Either of the two works as they grow no more than 4-5 inches respectively with clown plecos mosly at 3 inches in length only.

If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Hope this helps!
 
I replaced the filters with new clean ones. I do still have the old dirty ones sitting in a bucket beside the tank. They may be dried out by now. Would they still work?
 
How long have they been dried out? If they have been dried or drying out for seven hours or more, chances are they're already pointless to use. I would have saved those and kept them damp. Those were all you needed to keep the nitrogen cycle process stable.
 
They have been out of water for about 20 hours, however they are still very wet and goey feeling. Do you think they are good?

I didn't put them back in the new set up because they looked sooooo gross
 
most likely they are useless at this point, you will have to cycle the tank again with the new filters keep a very close eye on the water parameters and do water changes (50%) at the first sign of the parameters not being where they should be. Also those bala sharks are pretty sensitive to water changes so make sure the water you are adding is conditioned and the temperature is as close to the tank temperature as possible.
 
So far the tank is still looking good and all of the fish appear to be doing well. I changed this tank from gravel to sand and the loaches love it. I didn't know they would bury themselves in it!

One of my bala sharks had some redness in his fins before I moved him to this new tank. He swims around and appears to be ok other than the red in the fins. I hope he makes it!


When do you think it will be safe to add more fish to the tank?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom