Update and a couple of questions.??

[swamprat]

Problem child here again.
After my bout with Ich and finding that my 2 silver dollars and my angel fish are to small for my 17 gallon I've been on the hunt for a bigger tank. Got a great deal on a 55 gallon with filter and heater! :dance
The 17 is doing fine with no signs of any disease for over a month now
it is sitting and steady at
ammonia= 0
nitrites= 0
nitrates= 30+/-
and PH= 7.4 to 7.6
I'm doing 50% wc's/vaceum about once a week.Just because its so dang easy with the python! LOL
The nitrates tend to stay a bit high as I think I'm a little overloaded with the silver dollars and the angel, which, by the way, are all growing like weeds! But I checked the water straight out of the tap( well water) and got nitrates at 20 ppm
Now, the questions.
1. What do I need to add to the new 55 from the 17 in order to jump start cycling? Filter medium? gravel? And do I wait until I'm seeing the same test results in the 55 before I start moving fish around?
2. The new tank came with an ebo jager 150 watt and from reading up on it, it is supposed to be for 30-45 gallons. Do I need to upgrade a bit? We keep the house temp aound 78-80 during the winter ( florida folks!LOL)
3. I picked up a really nice piece of dead coral at a yard sale for 50 cents. As long as it is clean, is it safe to put in the tank? ( yeah, I'll do the boil and presure wash thing but my girlfriend seems to think there is something in coral that will kill a fw tank?)
Thanks in advance for all the help! Was starting to worry a bit this last week when it was down!
Till then
Brad

 

[qtaquaman]

The angel wont like the coral and too but less so to. The coral raises ph and waters hardness. You can aid but not speed up cycling by squeezing out your 17 g filter sponge into the water/filter of the 55. If you keep your house at 78/80 you dont even need a heater. The one you have, yes should be bigger but as it is so rarely needed it should be fine.

 

[Jason01]

If your 17 gal. uses any type of filter floss, just remove the filter floss from the 17(just like your adding a new one), and put it in the filter for the 55. If they are different types of filters, you can cut up the old one, and put it in with the new one. On my new tank, I took the 2 floss parts from my 55, and put them under the bio-media(after cutting off the front half, the cleaner side), the back side with all of the junk went in the tank(with no fish in it), one half sank to the bottom, and the other one got stuck to the internal filter. After a day and a half, no ammonia, no nitrites, and nitrates were rising(tap was ~5ppm). Added 4 fish yesterday, 0 ammonia, .1 nitrites(this morning, 0 by afternoon), and nitrates were up to ~15. Tank is pretty much cycled in 4-5 days !

If you also have gravel in your 17, I would add a handful to the 55, as benefical bacteria is there also.

If your house is 78-80, you really don't even need a heater, unless you keep it at like 50 during the summer......... Which, if you do, you will want a 200 watt(at least) heater(course, I have a 200 in my 29, 42, and 55).


The thing with the coral is that it will leach into the water, raising the KH, which will also raise the PH. However, if slowly acclimated, the fish will do fine. My tap water has a normal PH of 8.2, and my angel has been just fine for a year. (My KH is 200-240 PPM, ~13 deg, however, my GH is like 10-20 PPM....stupid water softener)

:OT:
Why, if you live in Florida would you keep your house a 80? It is a privilage here to keep the house at 70!(course, it is like 10 deg. outside here also, not 70!)
weirdo :laugh:
You seriously have a furnace in your house in Florida?
:OT:

 

[swamprat]

Thanks guys,
Put one of the filter sponges from the 17 in the 55 yesterday and evrything seems to be progressing quickly! Think I'll put the coral up on the bookshelf and just let it be pretty up there.

:OT:
Yeah Jason, We keep the house at that temp, pretty much year round, so it kind of evens out. And yeah, believe it or not, we do get some cold temps. I'm just a little less than an hour from the Ga. border so its not really the "tropical" Florida that everybody thinks we have down here all year. We've had temps in the 20's several times already this winter but right now it is back up in the 70's!
Now come summer, when it is 95-100 out, The house will still be at 78-80 rather than down in the 60's

Thanks again guys