On Apr 8, 2:52*pm, "Gail Futoran"
wrote:
I'm going to be moving 2 YoYo loaches, 3
Cory cats, 2-3 Glowlight Tetras & several
otocinclus from a 20G long to a 55G. *Both
are moderately planted. *Plants are easy care
such as crypts, Java Fern, maybe a sword or
two, & some floating plants.

The 55G has been set up for about a month.
Since I moved plants, driftwood, and decor
from the 20G, the 55G is already cycled.
I.e., ammonia is zero, nitrites are zero, nitrates
are present but low. *Filtration is a power filter
and a powerhead. *At the moment, both are
running without filter material.

Question is when to move the fish. *Right
now the pH, GH & KH levels in both tanks
are close in value. *Nitrates, though, are
high in the 20G (where fish currently live),
around 30-40 PPM. *Nitrates in the 55G
are /=5 PPM.

I just did a partial water change (4 gal.
extracted) on the 20G and will retest
nitrates. *I suspect I will continue doing
small water changes for a few days to
get nitrates lower.

From my readings it's suggested fish
shouldn't experience sudden changes in
water parameters, even from "dirty" to
"clean". *The gravel in the 20G is three
years old and I doubt I can get it *very*
clean without yanking out some large
plants with extensive root systems. *BTW
I don't do CO2 injection. *My plants do
fine without it.

Can anyone suggest a target nitrate value
for the 20G that will make it safe for me
to move the fish to a much cleaner
(in nitrate terms) environment in the 55G?

I.e., is a value around 20 PPM nitrates in
the 20G reasonable, or should I try to get
nitrates lower? *In the 5-10 range?

Thanks -

Gail

I would not worry about matching nitrates. To be honest either my
tanks are balaced out the same or I am just plain lucky as all I ever
check for anymore is to get the temps close and thats it. As long as
yuor sure your tank is now cycled, then just do a temperature
acclimation matchup. I think they would do just fine. Perhaps just
move a cou0le of fish at a time over, so as not to overload what ever
bio system is in place........sort of how they add sal****er fish only
do one or two at a time..so system can adjust to bio load. I like to
try and get my nitrates as low as possible but plants do neet it to
grow, and once again its been years on end since I have done any
serious water testing, and everything does great so far like it is. I
do however use co2 sysyem on the heavily planted tanks as there is not
sufficient bioload to do the polants much good without it. Hard to
pass it up for what I got it for....Close out at Petsmart and it was
like 75% off suggested list, and refills were selling for 1 cent a
pack regular price was like $12.99 a pack....................so maybe
it would not hurt to checkout Petsmart for the Hydro brand co2
system.......

The cory cats and glow light tet are pretty hardy, and I also have to
believe the clown loachs will do fine too........I also find Oto's
pretty darn hardy as well......so I think you will be just fine
without worrying with nitrate etc matchup. even 10-20 ppm of nitrate
is not going to hurt the fish in a heavily planted tank...but I wuod
shoot for the 10 ppm range myself "IF" I was one to do water tests.
Swap the media from the established tank to be on the safe side and
give it 5 to 7 days or just do the couple of fish at a time over a
week or two time span with old filter media in place and it should be
ok.