10 gallon to a 20
I have been a tropical fish enthusiast since I was a kid. As a child I can remember sitting in front of a 5 gallon tank that we had in our kitchen, watching the fish swim around inside the tank. Whenever I took my boys to our local Petco, they would head immediately to the tropical fish area, and stand and look at all of the different species of fish. I decided at that point that getting a aquarium would be a fun project for the whole family. We stared off with a 10 gallon stater tank in 2005, we had a mix of cherry barbs, gold barbs, neons, zebra's, and a algae eater, and the tank was one happy fish community. After a few years I began to think about upgrading to a larger tank. Whenever I would to for pet supplies, I would stroll up and down the aisles where the aquariums were, trying to decide which size to upgrade to. For short time I toyed with the idea of going to a 100 gallon, but we did not have the space in our family room for it, plus the expensive of a new stand, the tank itself, and all of the accessories, made me decide to try something a little less adventurous. I decided on a 20 gallon, I figured it's only 10 more gallons of water right? What could possibly go wrong?
I found a tank stand at the Wal-Mart near our home, and then began the search for a 20 gallon tank. I wanted to get a starter kit that would include the tank, a hood, filter, & a heater. After finding the last 20 gallon kit at Wal-Mart I had to return it after getting it home, only to discover that it had a crack in the glass on one side. There were no more starter kits to be found anywhere, so I went to a local pet store and brought a tank, hood, heater, filter, and gravel, and began to set up the tank. Here is where things began head south. I set up the new tank, but I should have done more research on transferring fish from a smaller tank to a larger. The way to do it is to put as much of the water from the older tank into the new one as possible. This way you are moving the established helpful bacteria into the new tank which helps to avoid starting a tank over from scratch. I did not do this, I set my new tank up, plugged in the filter, and the heater, and let it run without any fish in it. Finally, after having two tanks running for about 6 weeks, I decided that I could start transferring the fish from the 10 gallon to the 20.
I moved in two of my Cherry Barbs that I had had for several years into the 20 gallon, they seemed to be doing okay, after a couple of weeks I moved in three of my gold barbs, and then a few weeks after that the rest of the fish from my 10 gallon tank. Thing seemed to be going okay, and then suddenly I began loosing fish. Ammonia turned out to be the cause from over feeding. I had fed my fish every day in the smaller tank, but in the 20 gallon the uneaten food spiked up the ammonia levels and my fish began to drop like flies. At one point I was changing 5-10% of the water every day to get the ammonia levels down, after almost 4 months of doing this the ammonia lever stabilized and was no longer a problem.
I had always wanted angel fish and now that I had a larger tank I decided to try introducing a couple into the tank community. This was a disaster, as one angel fish quickly killed it's tank mate. The second one survived for a while, but never grew too much in size and eventually died. I finally settled on fish in the Tetra family, they are hearty, durable, and thrive in less than perfect conditions. I discovered that algae in a larger tank is a constant problem. I first introduced a Plea who tripled in size in the three years that I had him, and made more of a mess in the tank than help clean up. I finally gave him to a friend who had a much larger tank. I finally tried ghost shrimp, and they do a fairly good job of keeping the tank clean. What helps the most is weekly maintenance of vacuuming the gravel, and removing 10% of the water, this helps keep the ammonia at save levels.
After all this I am really glad I did not get the 100 gallon tank I can only imagine all of the extra work involved in keeping a tank that size. I'm sure that any aquarium veterans reading this are having quite a chuckle at all my mishaps in upgrading my tank. But I hope that anyone who enjoys fish as much as I do, and is considering getting a larger tank will read this and not make the same mistakes that I did. Get great deals for supplies for your aquarium at Premium Pet Products
I found a tank stand at the Wal-Mart near our home, and then began the search for a 20 gallon tank. I wanted to get a starter kit that would include the tank, a hood, filter, & a heater. After finding the last 20 gallon kit at Wal-Mart I had to return it after getting it home, only to discover that it had a crack in the glass on one side. There were no more starter kits to be found anywhere, so I went to a local pet store and brought a tank, hood, heater, filter, and gravel, and began to set up the tank. Here is where things began head south. I set up the new tank, but I should have done more research on transferring fish from a smaller tank to a larger. The way to do it is to put as much of the water from the older tank into the new one as possible. This way you are moving the established helpful bacteria into the new tank which helps to avoid starting a tank over from scratch. I did not do this, I set my new tank up, plugged in the filter, and the heater, and let it run without any fish in it. Finally, after having two tanks running for about 6 weeks, I decided that I could start transferring the fish from the 10 gallon to the 20.
I moved in two of my Cherry Barbs that I had had for several years into the 20 gallon, they seemed to be doing okay, after a couple of weeks I moved in three of my gold barbs, and then a few weeks after that the rest of the fish from my 10 gallon tank. Thing seemed to be going okay, and then suddenly I began loosing fish. Ammonia turned out to be the cause from over feeding. I had fed my fish every day in the smaller tank, but in the 20 gallon the uneaten food spiked up the ammonia levels and my fish began to drop like flies. At one point I was changing 5-10% of the water every day to get the ammonia levels down, after almost 4 months of doing this the ammonia lever stabilized and was no longer a problem.
I had always wanted angel fish and now that I had a larger tank I decided to try introducing a couple into the tank community. This was a disaster, as one angel fish quickly killed it's tank mate. The second one survived for a while, but never grew too much in size and eventually died. I finally settled on fish in the Tetra family, they are hearty, durable, and thrive in less than perfect conditions. I discovered that algae in a larger tank is a constant problem. I first introduced a Plea who tripled in size in the three years that I had him, and made more of a mess in the tank than help clean up. I finally gave him to a friend who had a much larger tank. I finally tried ghost shrimp, and they do a fairly good job of keeping the tank clean. What helps the most is weekly maintenance of vacuuming the gravel, and removing 10% of the water, this helps keep the ammonia at save levels.
After all this I am really glad I did not get the 100 gallon tank I can only imagine all of the extra work involved in keeping a tank that size. I'm sure that any aquarium veterans reading this are having quite a chuckle at all my mishaps in upgrading my tank. But I hope that anyone who enjoys fish as much as I do, and is considering getting a larger tank will read this and not make the same mistakes that I did. Get great deals for supplies for your aquarium at Premium Pet Products
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