Hi all,
A friend of the family is looking to get rid of their 20g high tank setup. It's been running for years and with the exception of quite a bit of algae looks to be pretty healthy. I'll have to get rid of the current gravel (clown puke) and all of the fake decorations (pirate ship, airplane wreck, etc)... so I'm basically trying to redo the whole tank while keeping the fish alive. The current stocking is pretty bad (imo): 3 neons, 2 mollys, 1 glass catfish, 2 brown khuli loaches, 2 panda cories.
So my plan is to keep the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with the filter/heater on it for a couple of days while I sort out the tank. Plan for the tank is to empty it out and give it a good cleaning. Refill with Eco-complete (or something similar) for the substrate, and get some natural driftwood and live plants for deco, then pop the filter and heater back on and once the temp is stable, the fish go back in.
I'm planning to rehome the neons, glass cat and mollys. So once I'm sure parameters are stable, I'll add 3ish more kuhli loaches and 3-4 more panda cories (if I can find them local). So I'm left pondering what else to add to make the tank pretty and interesting.
The main goal for this tank (after healthy and happy critters obviously) is to get my -soon to be- wife interested in tanks so I can get a larger set up going. I don't think its ideal to take on this project with my wedding 1 month and 1 day away, but i've been wanting to set up a tank for a while now and at this point, can't pass up a free set up.
So I'm planning to use this thread as a journal of the build/evolution of the tank. Any and all thoughts/suggestions/advice most welcome.
A couple of questions to start off:
1. Eco-complete... it's been several years since I last had a tank. I used to use eco-complete for all my tanks... is this still a thing? is there something that's come along that's comprable/better?
2. I know it's not ideal, but for a couple of days the fish should be ok with the 5 gallon bucket plan while I work on cleaning/setting up the tank, yes?
edit to add... I'll be picking up the tank and critters on Saturday, so I've got some time to prepare.
A friend of the family is looking to get rid of their 20g high tank setup. It's been running for years and with the exception of quite a bit of algae looks to be pretty healthy. I'll have to get rid of the current gravel (clown puke) and all of the fake decorations (pirate ship, airplane wreck, etc)... so I'm basically trying to redo the whole tank while keeping the fish alive. The current stocking is pretty bad (imo): 3 neons, 2 mollys, 1 glass catfish, 2 brown khuli loaches, 2 panda cories.
So my plan is to keep the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with the filter/heater on it for a couple of days while I sort out the tank. Plan for the tank is to empty it out and give it a good cleaning. Refill with Eco-complete (or something similar) for the substrate, and get some natural driftwood and live plants for deco, then pop the filter and heater back on and once the temp is stable, the fish go back in.
I'm planning to rehome the neons, glass cat and mollys. So once I'm sure parameters are stable, I'll add 3ish more kuhli loaches and 3-4 more panda cories (if I can find them local). So I'm left pondering what else to add to make the tank pretty and interesting.
The main goal for this tank (after healthy and happy critters obviously) is to get my -soon to be- wife interested in tanks so I can get a larger set up going. I don't think its ideal to take on this project with my wedding 1 month and 1 day away, but i've been wanting to set up a tank for a while now and at this point, can't pass up a free set up.
So I'm planning to use this thread as a journal of the build/evolution of the tank. Any and all thoughts/suggestions/advice most welcome.
A couple of questions to start off:
1. Eco-complete... it's been several years since I last had a tank. I used to use eco-complete for all my tanks... is this still a thing? is there something that's come along that's comprable/better?
2. I know it's not ideal, but for a couple of days the fish should be ok with the 5 gallon bucket plan while I work on cleaning/setting up the tank, yes?
edit to add... I'll be picking up the tank and critters on Saturday, so I've got some time to prepare.