tank being switched from goldfish to....???

[kelley]

First off, forgive me if this inquiry is in the wrong place, or if I've missed an archive- I did search--

Our ten gallon tank is now empty, but had goldfish in it. We'd like to put little tiny schooling fish that will NOT GROW:) and possibly one of those tiny frogs.

What do I need to do to get it ready? FSguy said dump half the water and add some ammo-lock and turn up the heat to 78 degrees. Another employee said I needed an undergravel filter?!

We have-
whisper filtration system that came with the 10 gallon tank.
heater
gravel full of goldfish blech
fake plants
bubble stone (maybe 5 inches long) with little pump for it
lid with lights

I would hate to put in a whole bunch of cute (tetras??) and have em croak due to something bad leftover, but this is where I'm unsure of how to cycle this tank correctly.

Please help! Kelley

[JesseJ]

Give everything in the tank a very through cleaning. Rinse the gravel in your tub with a colander (sp?) spaghetti-draining bowl thing lol. Get a new cartridge for the filter. The temp should be 78-80 deg F for most tetras. After you've cleaned it out then get 2-3 small tetras (Neons, H&T lights, glolight, red phantoms, whicever small ones you like) and see if they do ok in the water. If they're good after a week get more. 10-14 small tetras and 1 small frog will be fine in a 10 gallon. Get an African Dwarf frog, not a Clawed frog. Clawed frogs tend to get big and eat fish. You can get a small bottle of Cycle of Stress Zyme to help with bacteria levels also.

[kveeti]

How long since the goldfish were last in the tank? Were they sick in any way before they left? If so (or if it’s been a while since they were last in there), I would completely tear down and clean the tank. If they were healthy and have just recently vacated, a very good gravel cleaning should suffice. Keep rinsing the gravel in clean treated water. There is no reason to keep any of the old water. It contains nothing that will benefit your new fish.

78 degrees is a good general temperature, but it does depend what kind of fish you are going to keep. You do not need the undergravel filter. Save your money, none of those bacteria products like Cycle actually work, with the exception of Bio-spira.