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I recently moved and the home I bought has a 5 foot deep 1500 gal pond I moved my natives into that and my 75 is ready for the community tank I always wanted (Reeeaaally tired of the headaches of fish that size).

Anyway, after a couple months without any water in my 75, I set it up last night. Starting to plan what to stock it with. I love cichlids but I'm ready for smaller community fish. I currently have a BN and 3 fantail goldfish in a 29 that I kept established during the move. I'll move the 200 biowheel filter and all 4 fish into the 75 to get it jumpstarted. The 75 has a total of 600 gph biowheels.

If I were to keep the fantails in my 75, what other community fish would be appropriate? I plan on a neutral pH and upper 70F temps.

If you have read my previous posts, I had algae probs with my 75 and my large natives. When I put them in the pond, I drained the tank and removed all decorations and equipment from the tank. Only the gravel, top and the very small amount of water that I couldnt siphon remained. A couple of days ago, I removed the gravel and it was still moist so I put it in a bucket and did not wash it. I only cleaned the tank itself. I reassembled everything including the filter, rocks and mopani that had some dried algae on it and added only tap water and Prime. After 48 hours the ammonia is up to 1.0 and nitrates are 20. Nitrites are still zero and the tank has obviously not cycled.

I will spend a couple days to get the temp and pH close on the two tanks and then move the fish and filter.

See anything wrong with this plan?

Thanks!

Update - I moved the fish, filter and some decorations to the 75. Ammonia dropped from 1.0 to 0.25 and Nitrite climbed from 0.0 to 0.25. Looks like I brought sufficient bacteria to the 75.

Any opinions on how long I should leave the filter from the 29 running in my 75 to get the bacteria established? I realize I may have a mini-cycle when I remove it. It is temporarily hanging on the front of the tank with only half of my canopy top installed. I was thinking 1 week. I am intentionally overfeeding a bit to grow bacteria while monitoring ammonia and nitrites daily.

I think the small amount of water left in the 75 was high in ammonia and nitrate due to the waste left in the gravel. I didn't clean it because I had planned to set it back up much sooner than I did.

Hey congrats on that pond I want one of those when we move !

As for cycling the 75, I'd watch it for a week, then decide how much longer you might need to run the filter. To be on the safe side I'd say for 3 weeks minimum, but you might be ok after 1.

Since the gravel didn't have water movement over it (from what I think I understand in your first post) I'm a tad worried that most of the bacteria was lost, especially if the temp dropped too much.

Most goldfish can handle the cycling process, however as you've got fancies they may show stress. As for the BN, keep a close eye on him. I'm not sure overfeeding at this point is a good idea as it would just stress the fish out more. If it were a fishless cycle then the feeding of the ammonia would be ok, but at this point I think the concentration should be on the health of the fish.

Hopefully the goldfish and the BN will be the only occupants of that tank as the 4 you have now more than fill the tank.

^_^

I'm assuming that all of the bacteria in the 75 was lost. Basically, I'm starting a new tank with the acception of a seasoned filter and a couple of fake plants to introduce bacteria from a healthy tank. Ammonia is almost zero now and nitrites never crept over 0.25 so I think this is a success. I have a power head running in my 29 to keep it aerated just incase something goes wrong.

As far as the fish go, my BN is a small female and the fantails are only about an inch long (excluding the tails). I've had them for over 6 months and they do not seem to have grown at all. I hear they can get quite large but do they grow slowly?

Just like kids and other living things, most fish do their fastest growing when they're small. However if they're in with other fish that are also trying to grow in a small environment it usually ends up stunting them. This is bad as they end up with internal problems and shortened lifespans.

That being said, a 29 is much better for them to have spent their 6 months in than some things I've heard and seen being used for goldfish!

My suggestions for the 75, keep the goldfish, but wait another few weeks before adding anything. Whatever you do add should be under 2" adult size, and slimbodied. I think a small school zebra danios or white cloud mountain minnows, would do great. If you want more of the gold color look for gold barbs, they're a tad larger than danios or WCMM but they're gold like goldfish are. All these fish come from the same area and you'll end up with a great asian tank.

I would stay away from amazon fish as they generally require warmer waters, which the goldfish don't like.

Since you're ammonia is almost zero I'd give it another week and see how it goes. Once the nitrItes are zero and you've got a good amount of nitrAtes you can pull the second filter off. The other advantage to a lot of the asian fish is that they're used to having to cycle their environment in the wild (due to low temps killing bacteria) so they're generally considered hardier fish.

^_^

Thanks for the suggestions!

Just checked and Ammonia and Nitrite are zero. Nitrates are 30 I'll add a few fish this weekend and leave the filter on for a few more days to be safe.


Edit: I read Fantails typically only reach 6" in length unlike common gold fish that can be 24" or more.

I got all 4 in one pic with my cell phone BN is munching on cucumber. Filter intake is back left for size reference.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u305/Krash7172/misc/fantailsandbn.jpg

After talking with a seemingly knowledgeable person at my LFS I decided not to include the fantails in my community tank. I want tropicals and they warned against mixing the two types of fish because of varying disease tolerances.

I oringally bought my BN for a cold water tank and it did well but it seems very happy at 78-80 deg F now. I assume it will do fine with tropicals?

Bristlenose plecs will do fine in tropical conditions. I'd say they do better in them. I have my pair in with other trops.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Thanks, Shinigami! Good news. It's the one fish I'd really like to move to my community tank. My BN is more active than ever. I rarely saw it during the day when it was in my cold 29.

I moved the fantails back into my 29 with the seasoned 200 gph filter. Monitoring levels in both tanks and all is good.