Glad that the tank is a source of enjoyment and comfort if you aren't feeling well. After a physical last week I got a phone call from a nurse asking that I come back for another blood test. When I asked why, she replied that a few measurements were a little, um, unusual. When I asked which ones, she responded that she (being a nurse) wasn't allowed to say. It was time to go watch the darters beg for food in a living room aquarium. ;)
I'm sorry about your old tank. I have a tank that seems to be much the same way and I will reluctantly put an end to it, sit it in the freezing weather predicted next week, toss all of the gravel, etc, into the garbage. There will be some fine plants lost too. :(
The tank will then be scrubbed down with rubbing alcohol since the waxy outside of Mycobacteria is so tough it resists bleach, but evidently (so I'm told) can not resist the alcohol. Then there will be a serious rinsing and resetting up of the aquarium.
A bunch of plants, water and gravel from established tanks will be added to that 10-gallon. Then I will feel comfortable adding a grand total of two adult killifish. With luck there will be fry all over it by February. :) (Talk about counting your fry before the eggs are even laid!)
So I have a feeling for what you are going through.
Have heard all sorts of good things about biowheels, except for the few models that get jammed. They do seem to provide a lot of surface for bacteria and even cichlid guru Paul Loiselle has praised the usefulness of those filters.
For more Google [biowheels and nitrogen cycle] or "Emperor 400" and "tank cycling". Don't just trust one source, even if it is Guppylog. :)
You write, "Anyway, it has sat for days, cleaning and making bacteria..." What are you using for food for the bacteria? Are you adding ammonia with the 3-4 week fishless cycling program (if so stop adding ammonia now that you have fry in there) or did you put two or three fish in there so that their waste material will feed the bacteria? You should be roughly to the first ammonia spike by now.
If nothing was in there pooping and passing urine through their gills, there are precious few beneficial bacteria in that tank, because they didn't have a lot to eat or use to produce lots of offspring. I would watch the baby platies. Being so small, the fry may very well do fine in the new set-up. (Don't over feed though.) I doubt that they will have completely cycled the tank by next week, even with the help of the filter. (Will they get sucked in?)
Even if the fry have cycled the tank, will the new fish bulk so much more that there will be a huge ammonia spike a few days after they arrive? That could result in the subsequent loss of some of them and/or the fry?
Do you have ammonia, nitrite, nitrate testing kits? (I know, more potential @!#$%^&**!! expenses.) I have that queazy feeling that if you add more fish so soon, your aquarium will be "on the bubble" towards problems. I understand that the biowheels aid in the ammonia break down process. But I'm no authority on them and just do not know how fast that tank will cycle.
Should you be able to test, write down the progress and provide us with a log as to how many weeks it took the tank to completely cycle with the fry and again with the addition 2 or 3 (of the 10-13 full grown platies) that the pet store said you I could start with.
The new additions to a cycled tank shouldn't bulk/ weigh any more (or much more) than the fish already in a tank. I feel that this is one of the most awful things which aquarists can do to themselves and their fish. And sadly, the shops, seeking quick sales or in ignorance, sometimes set them up for that disaster.
Just saw a photo of a lumpy, spinally deformed guppy in a book. The caption was along the line of this fish was stunted in a crowded tank. Also wouldn't want that for your babies. ;)
I'm sure some of these comments may take a little of the wind out of your sails. But hopefully, starting more slowly, your aquarium will be providing you with enjoyment all the rest of this and next year. :)
That's the kind of Happy New Year's wish you should have. :)
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