# Starting a 30 gallon freshwater tropical aquarium



## computzone (Aug 2, 2010)

Hi,
I started a new 30 gallon aquarium 9 days ago, I bought the tank used and it came with a whisper 20-40 filter but it is LOUD!!! so I took the aqua clear mini out of my established 5 gallon (moved all fish into new tank) and put it in my 30 gallon. I am running the aquaclear all day, but only the whisper at night. I bought a new aquaclear 50 with the plan the replace the whisper and aquaclear 20 with it. My question is, which of my old filters should I remove to put in the new one.


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Welcome to TFK, I hope I can help you a bit your new filter should be enough for the tank with out using either of the others, the aquaclear 50 is capable of 200 gph (according to a vendor website) which should be fine plus maybe a little overkill. Not knowing your experience I have to ask if you do know about cycling your tank? If not a good read is here http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...inners-guide-freshwater-aquarium-cycle-38617/ You have done the correct thing by moving the filter over from your already established tank which will seed the new cycle, but it is probably important to keep it going all of the day because the bacteria you have built up in it will die with out a source of ammonia, I'm not sure if you meant the filter from your 5 gallon runs all the time, or just during the day?

You don't have to run both the filters to seed the tank, you can take the filter cartridge from the filter from your 5 gallon and put it in the new big one, or if it doesn't fit you can just leave the filter cartridge in the tank next to the inlet of your new filter.

I hope this helps you a little.


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## computzone (Aug 2, 2010)

Yes, I do know about cycling my tank that is why I put the established filter from my 5 gallon into my new 30 gallon. It is running all day. How long to you think it will take before the "spike" happens. Thank you so much for your help.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

As zof has mentioned, the bacteria placed in a tank must be fed either by placing a couple small fish in the tank, or by adding a pinch of fish food each day to the tank. 
More than a few folks have made the mistake of transferring borrowed filter material with active bacteria colony into their new tanks ,and then just let the tank run thinking that the bacteria will continue to grow.
Without a source of food as mentioned above,,, the bacteria will begin to die off within 48 hours.
I would replace the filter that was the smallest, or the filter that is noisy.


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

computzone said:


> Yes, I do know about cycling my tank that is why I put the established filter from my 5 gallon into my new 30 gallon. It is running all day. How long to you think it will take before the "spike" happens. Thank you so much for your help.


If all the fish were in the 5 and when you moved them and the filter over you also moved all the gavel and decorations over to the 30 my guess is you wouldn't see much of a spike as most of the bacteria needed for the out put of those fish have already been established and moved. Now if you just moved the filter then you will probably see a spike, it will build up just like in the standard cycle process, over the first couple of days you might see ammonia start going up, it should start happening right away as fish are always releasing ammonia. But the beautiful thing about seeding is the cycle should be over alot quicker then a start from scratch. Just keep testing and doing water changes as you feel necessary for the health of your fish.


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