New tanks, stands, and fish.

Hello everyone. Two Saturdays ago, I bought two tanks and stands, complete with filters, lights, decor and fish.

For $115, I got:

A 29 gallon (advertised as a 25) with a nice metal stand (welded together, not bolted). It alos came with a standard plastic hood and single tube T12 light (I wish to upgrade the hood and light). It had a resin castle and some Estes gravel in it as well.

A 29 gallon bow front with a nice wood stand. (It's light weight, but completely solid). This one came with a nice glass top (needs a back strip) but the same type of single tube, T12 strip light. (I wish to upgrade the light). It had two resin castles and some nasty, man-made gravel which I dumped out by the garage.

(Both tanks have black trim and the bow front has black silicone. (I think it may be a Perfecto). Both stands are black as well.)

Three Aqua-Tech 30-60 HOBs. Two of them have detachable motors (like Whispers) and one has the moter buil-in (like Penguins, this one also has the slots in the back for the baskets). Two of them had the bio-fiber mesh pads, one didn't, otherwise, they are complete. This was the first time I have seen them with the detachable motor.

One Penguin 200B, complete.

One 20 Watt Tetra heater.

Two very nice, dense styrofoam containers with lids, I'm gussing about 2 gallons each, in which the fish were transported...which brings me to...

The Fish:

2 -- Albino Cory-3/4 to 1"
1 -- Unidentified greyish w/redish head Cory-1-
1 1/4"
1 -- Sailfin Pleco-about 7"
1 -- Partially identified Sailfin Pleco-4-5", this
one is almost black.
4 -- Harlequin Rasbora-3/4-1"
7 -- Tiger Barbs-most about quater dollar size
1 -- Neon Tetra
1 -- Lamplight Tetra-about 1-1 1/4"
3 -- Unidentified fish, very similar in shape and
size to the Lamplight but they have a gold
strip with a black strip under it (touching)
running the length of the fish, mostly.

I put all of these in my waiting to be cycled 75 gallon along with the bio-media from the A-T that was on the bow front and the wheel from the Penguin. I tested the first few days and the end of the week, no NH3 or NO2 at all, all week and a NO3 count of 5-10 ppm at the end of the week. All of the fish are doing just fine, no problems at all. I feed them a few TetraMin crisps (floaties), two TetraMin tablest, broken up (sinkers) and two TetraVeggie algae waffers once a day.

I haven't set up the tanks yet, still cleaning all the goods (absolutely filthy) and need to do some minor furniture rearrangement.

Questions:

Can anyone help with the ID-ing of the fish?
How long will it take for the BB to colonize in my XP3's ceramic rings?
How should I remove the floating bio-media, one piece at a time/week? Per two weeks? It has been floating for 11 days. I would like to coordinate it with the setting up of the new tanks and moving some of the fish out of the 75 into them and new fish into the 75.

I would love to post pics for you all, I understand that it would be super cool and a HUGE help with ID-ing the fish, but when I put new batteries in my digital cam and turned it on, all I got was a single flash from the indicator light and that is all I continue to get, I've monkied with it a bunch, so, sorry, no pics.

Thanks everyone!!

Thanks for the reply, Heath. Sorry for the delayed response. I don't always get computer time, being the only parent of two...

I do have a liquid test kit, I posted the results of the tests...I guess I was looking for someone to share there experiences with dropping colonized media in a tank and waiting for the uncolonized media to colonize. The tests turned out as I expected, as the media put in the tank was the media used for the fish put in the tank, it stayed wet during transport so I was fairly sure it would be fine.

I guess a more direct quesiotn would be this: If existing bio media is colonized for the bio load of a tank, will new bb colonize in new bio media?

The large sailfin has a leopard pattern and looks just like the pics I've seen depicting a sailfin pleco. The smaller one is just much darker. It has the exact fin shapes as the large one. It is actually a little more shy, the large one comes out quite a bit and hangs on the glass and swims about. The smaller one is usually only seen during feeding, otherwise, it stays on or near the driftwood..

Those may be glowlights, sure look very similar. I'll have my daughter help. I don't see rapid movement very well, so I only see them while they are still, which usually isn't for very long. BTW, had I had the choice, I would not have picked small, fast fish....I am more a fan of larger, slower fish. I think many of these fish will go in the 29g when I set it up for my 4yr old son. That reminds me, would that 200b be sufficient for that tank? I was thinking of using the Aqua-Tech 30-60 I already have on one of the 29s and one of the newly aquired ones on the other 29. Opinions?

Does anyone else have any opinions, remarks, comments or advice? Anything anyone has to say would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

Rbishop: Thank you. That is what I assumed...but we all know what happens when we assume...you just confirmed it.

Patrick: As I stated in my OP, I really do wish I could post pics, I tried to, knowing that they would be requested by readers of this post, but I am not able to at this time. I will, however, with my daughter's help, provide a more detailed description:

silvery grey body/darker grey around the eye and gill, transparent fins, gold on top of black stripe starting at the gill and running the full length of the body untill it touches the vertical, curved orange stripe at the start of the tail fin.

The third cory has been, upon further and closer observation, identified as a Bronze cory. So, all three are aeneus.

Also upon further and closer observation, it has been decided that the smaller sailfin pleco is identical to the larger one except it is darker brown.

Anyone have an opinion on that heater? How about the filters?

Thanks everyone.

silvery grey body/darker grey around the eye and gill, transparent fins, gold on top of black stripe starting at the gill and running the full length of the body untill it touches the vertical, curved orange stripe at the start of the tail fin.

If more detail than this would be helpful, we will do our best to find some. Again, I realize that pics are prefered, but I really can't take any rith now, I do appreciate your time and effort in this matter every9one.

My daughter and I thank you.

Thannks, Rbishop. I kinda figured the heater was too small for these tanks, I have a 300w in my 75g, inline. I also thought the 30-60s would work ok, nice to have another opinion, though. Was the 200b included in your statement? I ask because of the bio wheel...or are bio wheels over rated? I have an A-T 30-60 that came with a deluxe 55g kit...I boutht the baskets to go in the back and a bio wheel retro fit kit for it...I didn't like it though, the wheels kept sticking constantly and they made an otherwise SILENT filter noisy (I kept the tank full up to the bottom of the filter, so no waterfall). I eventually went back to the bio fiber mesh pads.

I'll check around with people I know to see if I can borrow a digital cam to take pictures of these fish...I don't seem to be getting anywhere with the detailed verbal description.

Thanks everyone.