Tank upgrading

[tundrabadger]

Hey all,



I currently have my axie, Alexander, in a ten gallon, which he seems pretty happy in, but a) my sister has about 40 or 50 gallon kicking around, I'm not sure why, she's never kept fish or amphibians or reptiles in her life, she begins and ends with cats, i think her boyfriend was going to put cacti in it or something, but she's pretty sure I can have it and b) I'd love to have one or two more, obviously a ten gallon is no where near big enough for more than one adult axie, Alexander isn't fully grown yet and I would be hesitant to have more than one now, err on the side of generosity with space. But a 40 or 50 gallon, I will know more when I measure it and do the math would be more than enough room for a couple more, my wife is cool with the idea, yay.



So, once I have the tank, have built a stand for it and gotten it placed, how do I go about doing the transfer? Obviously I would be cycling the tank, but aside from that.....i've got good bacteria in the current filter, which will not be big enough for a bigger tank, what can I do about that? Also, how much of a size difference is safe? I doubt if the woman I bought alexander from will have any the same age left when I have the new set up done, she isn't the only breeder in town, if I wanted to breed myself somebody else might be better in any case, but I don't know that I will find other axies the same exact age and size when I'm ready for more.

 

[Hayleyy]

Hey!
Ideally, you would run the 40/50 gal along with the 10gal. Keep the axie in the 10gal until the new one is cycled. To cycle your new tank you will need a suitable sized filter. The fastest way is to add some filter media from the cycled filter into the new one (just wedge it somewhere into the new filter), and add most of the decorations to bring in more beneficial bacteria. In the 10 gal leave the basics, a hide and maybe some plants. If you have substrate it will bring in heaps of bacteria so transfer that into the new tank first.
Or, you can just run the larger tank with both the new filter and old filter. Add all the water from the 10gal and top it off with fresh dechlorinated water. It'll act like a big water change. The only issue here is if the cycle crashes. So, you will want to test water daily for the first week or so to make sure it's okay.
You can get bottled bacteria which may help, but I've read varying opinions on whether it works.

 

[Tye]

When the big tank is set up you can keep the smaller tank around and if that's still good and cycled buy another smaller axolotl and put it in there until it grows to be around the size of Alexander. Then you can just move the new one in with Alexander. The ten gallon is good to keep around for quarantining new axolotls before adding to the larger tank and also for use in quarantining new live plants.

 

[Hayleyy]

When the big tank is set up you can keep the smaller tank around and if that's still good and cycled buy another smaller axolotl and put it in there until it grows to be around the size of Alexander. Then you can just move the new one in with Alexander. The ten gallon is good to keep around for quarantining new axolotls before adding to the larger tank and also for use in quarantining new live plants.

Agree 100%