Water Stats After Upgrading

[ccskitten]

Hello

I posted here over the weekend. I have just upgraded my 10 gallon tank to a 40 gallon tank (I thought it was 60 but was dissappointed on double checking!). I couldn't have both tanks running at the same time so was advised it would be ok to set up my new tank, add my old filter as well as my new filter and also add my fish.

Anyway I checked my stats today and got the following: -

PH - 7
Amonia - 0
Nitrate - Completely clear
Nitrite - Completely clear

Is this normal after 24 hours? I used my new liquid testing kit.

In the tank I have

2 xray tetras
1 neon tetra
3 Red Wags
2 Melanotaenia Lacustris Rainbow Fish
2 baby common plec
1 common loach


I don't know whether to do a 20% water change this evening.

What do you think?

Cindy

 

[mwood2]

I would keep testing but as long as your tank doesn't show any signs of having ammonia/nitrite your fine. I would also think that because you have a bigger margin for error and the filter was originally able to cope with the bio load of these fish meaning there is no reason it shouldn't be able to keep doing so. What I would say is be careful for when you add more seeing as your filer may be capable and may cause a mini cycle. I would suggest trying to add another filter to the tank or upgrading your filter and place your current mature media inside to instantly cycle it. Once its safe to do some more adding I would also suggest adding more tetra since they prefer to be kept in a larger group then they are now.

 

[ccskitten]

Hi thanks for the advise

I have tested amonia and nitrite again today and they are still both at 0.

I have the big filter that came with my tank in there as well as my fluval 2 from my old tank. How long do you think I should keep them running side by side before taking out the fluval? I'm not adding anymore fish until I am sure that the other filter can cope with what I have.

My plan when everything is settled is to gradually add 5 more neon tetras, another female rainbow and some more platys or maybe swordtails instead. I might also look for a new home for my loach.

 

[waterdrop]

Ideally they should run side by side a month or two and it would be better not to increase stock until after the old filter is removed and the new one has tested ok on its own for a while. There is a tendency for the bacterial populations to even out among any number of filters present, but that can take a long time if one of them has a nice robust colony from the start, I think.

~~waterdrop~~