A couple questions for the 20 gallon I'm putting together.

watts300

Ok. So I just spent the last however long it has been... emptying the tank (20G) and rinsing new sand.

I did just as described above by JohnnyD. I put the amount of sand I would need into my 5 gallon bucket. With my kids' beach bucket (I think about 1.5 gallons) I dumped in on top of the sand.
Then I went back to the sink to fill the small bucket giving the sand enough time to settle.

After it was small bucket was full of water, I dumped out the water from the 5G assuming it would also get rid of the dirt and the real sand had settled. Then repeated by dumping the small bucket on top of the sand and refilling it.

I think I did that 5 times.


So when I finally got it into the 20 gallon aquarium............. did it make a huge difference? For sure.
The time that it took to rinse the sand versus the time that I gave it to settle is enormous.

It "settled" over night and about 2 hours with the filter on. It still was not as clear as it is right now after about 30 minutes of rinsing the sand.

So even for the lazy and impatient like me, rising is definitely the way to go. Thanks guys for recommending that.

watts300

Another question..

I just did a water change in my 10 gallon aquarium.

After removing the same amount from the 20 gallon of course, I put that the water from the 10 into the 20 gallon.

I assume that would aid in setting it up...?

I would love to be able to put the 10 gallon filter on the 20 gallon tank for a while, but I'm rather unsure about that. Maybe for small amounts of time a day while the 20 gallon filter is running?

adpierin11

The water from the 10g won't aid in anything because the beneficial bacteria live on your gravel, plants, decor, and filters. You could put some gravel from the 10 in a stocking and let it sit in the 20g or in the filter for the 20g, which will definitely help aid.
If you aren't going to be using the 10 anymore then why not put the 10g on the 20?

I suggest in keeping the 10g as a hospital tank. Leave the filter from the 10g on the 20g and when you get new fish put them in the 10g aka hospital tank, and take the 10g filter from the 20g and put it back on the hospital tank. Just an idea though....

watts300

It's definitely a good idea and I like the thought of having a quarantine tank, but my plan is to give the 10g to someone.

But I did just take your idea and moved about a half a cup of gravel.