[Cspencer83]

So i have 2 Tanks a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon. My question is since for some reason the 10 gallon doesn't want to cycle would it be beneficial for me to put the whole filter in tact with the bio wheel and all on my 10 gallon from the 20 for a day or so and my 10 gallon filter in the 20 gallon which the 20 is already well cycled and has been for a while? I figure that the 20 gallons filter will atleast help get rid of some of the ammonia that is in the tank and move it on to nitrites and nitrates and I know that the 10 gallons filter isn't enough to run the 20 gallon so i will be watching the 20 gallons ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels and if they start to spike i will throw the filters back in there normal tanks.

 

[Cspencer83]

Forgot to add i also added prime in the non cycled tank to make it easier for the filter without hurting or killing the bacteria on the bio wheel and in the filter. I also added the section of the filter intake tube that made the tube too long for the 10 gallon and a tank ordainment that was in the cycled tank for a long time

 

[sprmankalel]

If you have no inhabitants in the 10 gallon uncycled tank and you are in no particular rush I might suggest to run the filter you plan on using for this tank along side of the filter from your cycled 20 gallon for about a week or so. This should allow the 10 gallon filter to start catching the beneficial bacteria you need.

 

[Cspencer83]

I have that huge pleco still in that 10 gallon my wife won't let me get rid of it i will do a 50% water change a day to the 10 gallon while the filter is in the 20 gallon, this 10 gallon is really starting to piss me off. the tank is like 2 months old i think and has not made it past the ammonia, I have used a bacteria starter and prime in the beginning and occasionally use stress Zyme+ in it to keep the bacteria flowing and do water changes when needed and it is no closer now to being cycled then in the beginning it seems

 

[sprmankalel]

A huge pleco? How huge? This might be the whole cause of not cycling. Plecos require lots of space and are somewhat messy. It could be putting a strain on the bioload and the bacteria just can't catch up.

 

[Cspencer83]

lol well if you go inch per gallon he is it. The Pleco is 10 inches, he came with the 20 gallon along with the 2 Red fin tetras that i have in the 20 now with my other fish. My wife loves to look at the damn pleco and i have told her that it is like 3+ times too big for that tank really its too big for ether tank. The pleco is around 3 years old the guy that i got the tank from said so i am sure the things growth is stunted already. it doesn't eat very much or move much it mostly just stays in the log ordainment all day (His cave). But i am not sure if he would count as 10 inches of fish in bio load but to keep the ammonia down i do a lot of water changes so i don't hit that 5ppm cycle stopper mark i was told about.

That is the reason that i asked if i put the other filter in the tank would it help the tank cycle and the log that he likes is from the cycled tank so it has the bacteria on it since it spent 3 years in the cycled tank

 

[Cspencer83]

I know you are thinking that thing is going to die in that tank and I know it is going to. It is impossible for me to keep the ammonia levels down to a safe level for the fish, heck even if the tank was cycled it might produce waste too fast, I would need a fully cycled tank with plants to absorb the Nitrates at the rate they would be coming from that thing or have to do 2 water changes a day and big ones

Then there's the thing the thing that from what i have heard common plecos don't do well with live plants they kill them and i am not going to keep buying plants after he kills them so he can kill them again

 

[sprmankalel]

OMG! That pleco needs 70 gallons minimum and at full size could be 18-24 inches. Possibly more. He is depressed in that tank. After all fish like to swim. In the wild plecos swim in the strong currents of rivers. You're doing yourself nor that pleco any favors by keeping him in that tank.

The one inch per gallon rule is also outdated. He can't even turn around in there. Re-home him as quickly as possible. This will allow you to cycle the tank properly and get something that's more suited for it. Maybe a betta and some corys.

I hope your wife can see the light. It is cruel to the fish to keep it in there.

To Mrs Cspencer83: Please please please....I beg of you to re-home this pleco to a proper setting. This 10 gallon tank is nowhere near adequate. Please please please.

 

[Cspencer83]

I have told her over and over but she paid for the tank that came with the fish so it is technically her fish and i just try to take care of it i wanted to put a free posting on cregslist to rehome the poor fish but she would not let me. so she knows that it is slowly dying but for some reason she won't let me and I know that it is sad but by now the ammonia has probably done its damage and even if i do rehome him now he will still probably die I don't think she sees fish the same way as we do and i will be sad when it dies but there really isn't anything that i can do without her getting really mad and possibly braking the tank

 

[sprmankalel]

Well...that's between the 2 of you but would she keep a dog in a cage that couldn't turn around? I'd make her do all the work to the tank. That way the fish's survival is all on her. Just my opinion. This tank will always have ammonia problems as long as you have that pleco in there. About the best you could do is dose with AmmoLock. The ammonia is burning up the fish's gills and is VERY painful. Think about soda or milk coming out of your nose.

I am sad for you and that pleco that you can't convince her otherwise.

 

[sprmankalel]

How's the tank going?

 

[Cspencer83]

I still have the filter on the 20 with the 20s filter there too trying to get some bacteria on the filter and doing a water change every other day on the 10 to keep clean water in the 10 while it doesn't have a filter and i have a air line making bubbles from under the gravel to move the water and make gas exchange at the surface. The Pleco is eating more and more I am keeping the cucumber parts weighed down by a butter knife in the tank so he can eat at his leisure and every couple days i change out the food so it doesn't get nasty. I don't know if he was ever fed fresh vegies in the past because he didn't quite knot what to think of it in the beginning but now he loves it. I mean he can move around in the 10 when he wants to but as i said he doesn't really like to leave his log and I know you are going to say he is probably miserable, I am actually thinking he isn't. He is alone how he likes it, he stays in his cave where he likes it and doesn't get bothered other then when i do water changes and the water current bugs him and he raises his fins like he wants to fight the incoming water in the tank heh. now i know he should be in a 70 gallon tank atleast but i am thinking even in a 70 gallon tank he would do the same thing he does now. I think he is just extremely lazy lol even when he was young from what the old owner had said when the 20 was huge with him in it the thing never hardly left his log then from time to time he would leave the inside of it and suck on the outside of it then go back in. not sure this makes any difference to him. Just some food for thought and i have been thinking about it a lot too

 

[sprmankalel]

Is there a way you could move him to the bigger tank at all?

 

[Cspencer83]

the tank just got its substrate taken out and is going to be replanced soon with something different and i was thinking about putting him back in after that. I just don't want to take him out of the other tank to put him in the 20 and take him out again to put the new stuff in and put him back in