Combining 29 + 10 gallon to 55g

[Wat2Go]

Lucky mom that I am, I got a 55 gallon today. I'd like to combine an established 29gallon and 10gallon into this tank.

Here is the plan:
Rinse out the new tank and take the gravel, decorations and plants from the 29gallon, plus most of that water and put it into the 55 gallon. Use the decorations and plants from the 10gallon and put them into the 55 gallon as well.
I will not use the 10gallon gravel as I think there is another bout of ich ready to break out (one of the new fish has a speck of white on him/her...and lots of the harlequins are dying...)

Then fill the 55, run the 55 gallon filter together with the filter of the 29gallon and let it sit for 24 hours and move the fish (so I will leave a bit of water/gravel in the 29 gallon).

Can I assume the 55 will not do a cycle again? To give the fish a bit of space to move, could I just use a little bit of the old tank water (seeing the the healthy stuff is mostly in the gravel etc anyways) and think of it as a 80% water change?

Anything else I should think of?

L.

[Coler]

ok I don't think you need to worry too much about the old tank water; I gather not much if any of the bacteria reside in the water column.

If you're worried about ich in the 10 gallon I wouldn't use anthing from it; set it or the 29 up as a QT for ich observation and treatment if necessary for the fish in the 10.

Then use the filter and the decor, gravel etc from the 29 in the 55, filling it obviously lol; no need to leave for 24 hours; with the same stock as you have in the 29 you should have little or no cycle. Then just monitor on adding fish as per usual.

Congrats on the new tank !

[nickmcmechan]

like coler said, the ich will move with the 10G contents....

why do you think ich is coming again?

[Wat2Go]

I think one of the Harlequins came with ich. It currently has only one salty spot, but I suspect ich... Just treated this tank for ich 4 weeks ago, so I have now decided to never get any fish from this particular fish store anymore as so far I have always ended up with fin rot or ich or fish that didn't even last 24 hours!

Good to know that I don't even have to let it sit for 24 hours as I envisioned two tanks on the floor to make space for the 55!
What a fun way to end mother's day!

L.

[Coler]

absolutely ! good luck with it :)

[Mgamer20o0]

if you think the fish in the 10 gal has ich dont move them over. treat them in the 10 gal. you can move the 29 gal over thats fine.

http://www.aquafacts.net/components/com_mambowiki/index.php/Ich

[Jessu]

I was looking at your sig. The neons and rasboras like to be kept in groups of at least 6. Otos like to be kept in a group of no less then 3.

[Wat2Go]

I agree with the group size Jessu. The 5 neons are survivors of a group of 6 and have been together for a couple of months now. The Harlequins..well..I don't know! I bought a group of 6 and in a week all but 2 died. So I added 4 and have only 1 left...Guess I don't do well with Harlequins! No visible signs of any disease, swimming around happily the one minute and dead the next...
The oto's. I had a group of three but have one left. I will add another 2 though, I lost one oto a while back and one oto didn't survive the move from the 29 to the 55.

[Coler]

The Harlequins..well..I don't know! I bought a group of 6 and in a week all but 2 died. So I added 4 and have only 1 left...Guess I don't do well with Harlequins! No visible signs of any disease, swimming around happily the one minute and dead the next...


bad batch from the LFS maybe ? give 'em a break and try again in a while. Lovely little fish. You could have a great shoal in a 55.

[Wat2Go]

Hmm, that's what I figured with the first batch. But I bought the other 4 from a different store...
I love 'm, just seem to be able to keep 'm!

[Coler]

I wonder if the stores used the same suppliers ?