"Reel McKoi" wrote in message
...

"Gail Futoran" wrote in message
...

Obviously I expressed myself poorly in
some respects in my original post. My new
55G tank has been "running" - in that it has
had gravel, water, water movement (via a
power filter & a powerhead), decor and some
quantity of plants taken from active tanks - for
a month, but until I got close to thinking about
starting to add fish, I didn't even bother testing
the water.

The plants were doing fine with root tabs &
Flourish Excel, so I saw no need to do testing
until about __a week ago__. At that point
nitrates were present, ammonia & nitrites
were absent. The very definition of a cycled
tank. Thus it has been each day that I have
tested.

The nitrates may have come from the RootTabs. Where else would it
come from if no fish are in the tank?

The plants I moved over from the source
tank.
The decor I moved over from the source
tank.
The WATER I moved over from the
source tank.
And maybe the root tabs contributed. I
don't care how it happened, I just know it
happened.

Yesterday I found four fry in the new tank.
They are undoubtedly from the Glowlight
Tetras in the source tank. Now let's ask
how fry could possibly hatch from eggs and
then survive in a tank that wasn't cycled...

Or let's not.

BTW that's the first time I've seen fry in any
of my tanks. Eggs, sure. The Cory cats lay
them rather frequently, although none hatch
that I've noticed.

So I must be doing something right with my
new tank.

Adult fish are now in the new tank. Nitrates
are present but low, ammonia is zero, nitrites
are zero, yadda yadda.

Gail