[Kitty Whiskers]

Bear with me folks this is long :roll:... I have a few questions for you. First of all,my Fiance' bought me a brand new 10 Gallon tank for Christmas this past December 5 months ago. We cycled it, added female bettas, snails, and Cory cats slowly over the past months.

But now we found a used 29 gallon aquarium tank at a garage sale yesterday with an aquarium stand and plastic plants, gravel, filters, heaters etc etc...I never had a tank this big before. Is there anything special I need to do to cycle it, filter it, etc that is different from a 10 Gallon tank? We want to cycle it to transfer all the fish from the 10 Gal to the 29 Gal. First....How do you Sanitize a used tank. (I read a few books that said use a weak Bleach soultion with water, and some books say just use Baking soda water to make a paste, and also use Vinagar to get the hard water stains off) What is the correct and safe method to clean the used tank?

Some of the accesories look really old LOL... so I will probably get some new stuff. One thing will be a new filter. The lady who had it used both a under gravel filter and a hang off the back external filter. Whould it be good if I only used a big HOB filter only and not with an Undergravel one? (I heard the undergravel ones are hard to maintain)...

Does a 29 Gal tank take longer to cycle than a 10 Gal tank? What can I do to speed up the process? ( I read that I can add some of the 10 Gallon's tank gravel to the 29 Gallon's tank to jump start the cycle) Is this true? Are there any other ways too?

The lady's Garage sale that I bought it from, her family had used the tank for Fancy Goldfish only. She says they died because she moved from one state to another state and the water in the new state killed her Goldfish. She tried with new Goldfish but couuld never make them survive here in my state, so she gave up keeping fish.

Any info for me on this, or any other suggestions on anything about the tank and it's set up etc? I just want to do things the right way because my fish mean alot to me and I know that they would LOVE moving from the 10 Gallon to the 29 Gallon!! I want my fishies to be happy :-D

 

[Oldfishlady]

Awesome find......

When I get second hand tanks the first thing I do is a 24h leak test...even if they said it holds water and never leaked...one wrong move/twist and you can break a seal-plus if it sat dry for awhile the seals can dry out and crack...

I set mine up outside on a level surface-fill with water and if it came with a filter I hook this up too....I add some bleach (29gal half cup) let is sit for 24 hours with the HOB filter running.

I would do this without the gravel-I usually toss any gravel-but if you like it keep it...any decoration that came with it you want to use-place them in the tank to go through the bleach soak-if they are bleach safe-otherwise a good scrubbing and air dry is all you need to do for them.

If it passes the leak test.....drain, careful not to move it with any water or twisting, rinse well.
If it has mineral deposits I use vinegar and elbow grease...if glass I will also use a razor blade-careful not to cut into the seals....rinse well and start the setup....

Cycling will be the same as with the 10gal and if you are not in too big of a hurry....get the new filter with new media setup on the 10gal to run for a week....Instant cycle with the added safety of placing the 10gal filter on the 29gal or place the 10gal filter media in the 29gal filter box along with the new filter media....just monitor and make any extra water changes as needed.

If the stocking is going to be the same in the 29gal as the 10gal....the 10gal filter media should be enough and then any of the decoration going from the 10 to the 29 will also have the BB on them-just don't scrub them-a rinse is fine in dechlorinated water.

UGF-you don't need it-especially if you plan on any live rooted plants-the HOB should do the job and plus if you are using sand for the Corydoras...you can't use sand with UGF.

Look forward to pics once you get it setup.....

 

[Kim]

Bear with me folks this is long :roll:... I have a few questions for you. First of all,my Fiance' bought me a brand new 10 Gallon tank for Christmas this past December 5 months ago. We cycled it, added female bettas, snails, and Cory cats slowly over the past months.

But now we found a used 29 gallon aquarium tank at a garage sale yesterday with an aquarium stand and plastic plants, gravel, filters, heaters etc etc...I never had a tank this big before. Is there anything special I need to do to cycle it, filter it, etc that is different from a 10 Gallon tank? We want to cycle it to transfer all the fish from the 10 Gal to the 29 Gal. First....How do you Sanitize a used tank. (I read a few books that said use a weak Bleach soultion with water, and some books say just use Baking soda water to make a paste, and also use Vinagar to get the hard water stains off) What is the correct and safe method to clean the used tank?

For used tanks I definitely use a bleach solution as I don't want to deal with the risk of my fish being exposed to any nasty bacteria. I can't remember the exact concentration, but I usually just follow the directions on the bottle for general cleaning and disinfecting. Rinse really well, and if you're still concerned you can let the tank sit in the sun for a while- bleach evaporates.

Some of the accesories look really old LOL... so I will probably get some new stuff. One thing will be a new filter. The lady who had it used both a under gravel filter and a hang off the back external filter. Whould it be good if I only used a big HOB filter only and not with an Undergravel one? (I heard the undergravel ones are hard to maintain)...

I personally don't like undergravel filters. They trap a lot of grime where it can't be regularly cleaned. Then when you eventually have to clean it, you need to rip up your entire gravel bed...a pretty stupid idea in my opinion. I'd just use a regular HOB filter...no need to get an extra big one if the tank will only house bettas as they don't appreciate much current anyway and are a relatively low bioload fish. One rated for a 29 gallon tank should be fine.

Does a 29 Gal tank take longer to cycle than a 10 Gal tank? What can I do to speed up the process? ( I read that I can add some of the 10 Gallon's tank gravel to the 29 Gallon's tank to jump start the cycle) Is this true? Are there any other ways too?

Since there are so many factors relating to how fast a tank cycles, I can't really answer the first question. However, putting an old filter sponge from your 10 gal. into the filter for the 29 gallon (even if it doesn't fit you can just stick it in there somehow) will definitely help the cycle quite a bit. A little of the established gravel won't hurt either- you can even put it in a bit of nylon if you don't want to add it permanently to the tank. Aeration is pretty important for establishing bacterial colonies too. I usually add an airstone to cycling tanks, which I take out before adding my bettas.

The lady's Garage sale that I bought it from, her family had used the tank for Fancy Goldfish only. She says they died because she moved from one state to another state and the water in the new state killed her Goldfish. She tried with new Goldfish but couuld never make them survive here in my state, so she gave up keeping fish.

Sounds like either she didn't understand the nitrogen cycle or didn't use tap water conditioner :shock:.

Any info for me on this, or any other suggestions on anything about the tank and it's set up etc? I just want to do things the right way because my fish mean alot to me and I know that they would LOVE moving from the 10 Gallon to the 29 Gallon!! I want my fishies to be happy :-D

Sounds like a great plan! Have a blast setting it up...there are so many more options for decorating a larger tank :-D.

 

[kfryman]

Do the leak and bleach test first.

What I would do is literally take all your decorations and gravel from the 10 gallon and move it to the 29 gallon. It can be tricky, just make sure the water is dechlorinated. Use the same fikter at first but then add a bigger filter, still using the 10 gallons filter.

Everything is the same, just more water volume in the tank and being changed. Cycle the same, still takes the same time and everything.

Watch your stocking levels in the 29 gallon, your 10 is overstocked as you need at least 4 girls and 4 cories. Oh another thing cories need sand, so definitely use sand for the 29 gallon, their personalities will also show more.

 

[Kitty Whiskers]

Ok so I soaked the tank and plastic plant stuff in the bleach water plus washed it off with plenty of fresh clean water. I bought a new HOB filter, air pump, Bubble wand, some more artificial plants, new gravel, heaters & a background.

But the thing is that when I told the petstore employee the measurements for the back of the tank for the background I wanted to buy, she said it seems like I have a tank bigger than a 29 Gallon like the previous owners of the tank told me it was. The employee told me a standard 29 Gallon is 30 inches long and mine is 36 inches long by 16 inches high. I don't know the measurement from front to back right off hand however.

How do I figure out the Gallon size of the new tank? (Someone said to multipy Length x Height x Width) Is this correct?

 

[Oldfishlady]

Use this calculator for odd and/or regular size tanks....best one I have found...

http://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html