55 gallon and 40 gallon

[randy]

I found me a 55 gallon complete setup with stand and a 40 gallon with stand for 150.00. The 55 gallon is cycled and has been for over a year with gravel and low light live plants, the 40 gallon was used as a saltwater tank and I'm sure I'll have fun cleaning it out later. The problem is I live about 2 hrs. from the guy and I will be bringing them home in the back of my truck that has a canopy over it, my biggest thing is I want to keep the rock and filter media cycled with bacteria, is this possible or should I forget doing this. My thought was to take the media and place in a bucket of water and put water over the rock so it don't dry out but I'm not sure how to keep the plants from dying til I get home. I was wanting alot larger tank but I figured I'll set up my 29 and 55 then see if I'm sure I really want to take care of a bigger tank later + I like the price. Both tanks are crack and chip free so I'm thinking alone the tanks themselves would be close to 150.00. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

[emc7]

Keep the media, gravel & plants damp by bagging/wrapping in plastic (new 5 gal. buckets with a lid would work). They don't need to be actually wet. The old rule of thumb was always $1/gallon, but it doesn't hold for really small or large tanks. Around here new 55s are around a $100+ and odd sizes are more. Stands often go for more than the tanks. You will have a "mini-cycle" but shouldn't have to start from scratch.

[randy]

I think the 5 gallon bucket idea and just keeping the plants in the water as I travel seems to be the best bet. I would hate to loose the plants but frankly I'm not going to stress over it, also I'd rather have pool sand instead of gravel---would the filter material have enough to help with the new cycle? Today I bought a 50 lb. bag of pool sand for my 29 gal. and tomorrow I'm going to go looking for a aquaclear filter and a visi-therm heater so I can get the tank set up (my wife hates looking at a empty tank in the living room) plus it would make her happy. Would one bag of pool sand be enough for a 29 especially in case I desided later on to add some low light plants, also how deep should it be in the tank.

[Clerk]

The filter media will be enough if it is kept wet, if he tears it down when you get there, keep the media in the same bucket as the fish. Keeping it wet alone for 2 hours will be long enough for the bacteria to start starving.

The 50 lb of sand should be enough for the 29, and the 40 if you want.

I have 90 lbs spread out within my 50, 55, and 20, and its still more then I need in both of the larger tanks.