Did you get the same kind of filter for this second tank? If you did...take the old filter media out of the old and put in the new.....You should be able to add your other fish.......BECAUSE.....it is just like giving your old tank a water change.......

Now the advice would be different if this was your first tank .....

It takes about a month to 6 weeks for an ammonia peak usually.....its not instant. Check it weekly for a while. If there is an ammonia peak....then just do your water change 2 or 3 times a week till it settles down. I doubt that you will even see a peak though.

Watch those sharks don't go after your gouramis or pleco.....

Happy fish keeping! :-)
Sierra

Oh yeah good plan about the filter. It is the same. I will switch them tonight. It has a bio filter and a charcoal pack - I guess I should leave the bio part in the old tank?? I think it needs to keep it... right?

I bought a new bushy nose pleco for my old tank. He's so funny. I was hoping for a female but I got the bushiest little sucker in the tank :) haha it's growing on me. Funny little moustache.

I'm not going to put the gouramis in the new tank until I get a few more (fake) plants for it - the pleco has his same old hollow log but the gouramis will want somewhere to get away from the sharks. I will monitor their behaviour closely at first. Any signs of trouble and it's back to the fish shop for the sharks. As you can probably tell, I am very fond of the gourmais. They're both females for sure BTW. I saw some males at the fish shop and the fins are much longer and pointier.

Don´t worry much about the ammonia levels, worry about the nitrite levels. Before adding any fish check both parameters, both parameters should mark 0.0. Checking only ammonia doesn´t tell you how the tank is maturing you need readings of both.

To add to Raul, confirmation that your new tank is in cycle will be the nitrate increasing in a few days with NO detectable levels of ammonia or nitrite. So 0.0 ppm nitrite and ammonia. The water from your established tank does nothing for the cycle to establish. There is little to no benificial bacteria in the water column. The water added however may slightly skew early nitrate tests. It also did helpreduce stress from an abrupt change from the fishes normal aquarium water to the tap water.

Please don't light into me... but I did add some bacteria starter stuff out of a bottle. When I first started my original tank this was all I did, and nothing died when I added fish. May have been dumb luck.

Also, I only have a NH3/4 test kit at the moment and I won't be able to get to the aquarium supply store until the weekend - is anything going to happen before then WRT nitrate/ite levels?

Keep an eye on the Ammonia. You did detect ammonia if it starts to spike you are in the first stage of the cycle. If it now tests 0.0ppm, then you may have some nitrite, cant be sure without a test. Depending on what additive you put in, it could have given you that .01ppm reading. If you follow sierra's advise of the filter media swap or borrowing 1/2 you "should" be OK. Try not to add the bottled stuff, unless its Bio-spira by marineland ( i think thats the name) its the refridgerated stuff and only contains live bacterias. Others can have ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, or all, or none. The other tests Nitrite and Nitrate will benefit you, also pH. I have used the additives before, the problem is more often then not they defeat their purpose by overloading and causing a bio-filter crash, of knocking the bacteria's out of sync. causing unbalance and bacteria blooms.

Hey NS,

Yes you are right about the filter media....only add one either the sponge or carbon.....I wasn't sure which type of filter you had....some only have one filter media...

Please don't worry so much about the ammonia and nitrate....if you used water from your old tank and added one of the filter media.......there is no need to keep testing for everything. Of course its not going to hurt.....but as long as you keep up your water changes and maintenence.....you will be fine. Why spend a bunch of money when you don't have to?

I have set up numerous tanks just this way.....and there have been no problems.....and I don't test and test and test. I have a pH meter.....and an ammonia test kit.....I only ever test for ammonia if I suspect there is a problem.

The other tests....and yes I have used them were for specific things like trying to provide exact conditions for different reasons. dh, gh, nitrites, nitrates....

If you suspect any problems just do more water changes....

The problem with bacteria in a bottle is that the bacteria only have a short shelf life.......usually by the time its put into an aquarium it doesn't do any good.

No one is going to "light" into you here...hopefully you are getting good and useful information to help you enjoy your hobby even more.

BTW...now that you have the fish bug....becareful...evenually they will take over your house.....even worse than plants will. haha

Sierra

That should read don't worry much about the ammonia and nitrites.......I typed a instead of i....

The male bushy nose plecos have a bushier nose than the females. In some of the males it can get quite bushy.

Yes I am getting useful info from you all - thanks very much. I do want to get a bit more testing equipment anyway so I will check the nitrate and nitrite levels next week. I would like to check the pH too. Woeisme, actually I didn't say I was detecting any ammonia, I said less than 0.01. The test kit I have reads yellow for 0.00 and greenish yellow for 0.01. I wasn't sure which it matched so I am assuming the reading was either none or almost none.

I was joking about lighting into me about the bottle :-) Everyone says take care of your fish tank and don't just dump chemicals into it... but I had this stuff that came as a bonus with my chlorine remover so I thought what the heck and dumped some in.

Anyway no deaths or disasters so far! Although my big old fat cat doesn't like that I moved her pleco (she had a chair in front of the old tank and liked to attack him through the glass) and she jumped on top of the hood. It creaked but did not break. Have to keep her out of the room...

Thanks again.

Nitrates in freshwater are of little concern because they are much less toxic to fish, if you never do a siphoning or partial water change then you should be worried. Most fish are very resistant to high levels of nitrate. Nitrite is a completely different story, nitrite is very toxic, it causes transformation of hemoglobin into metahemogoblin uncapable of trapping oxygen, the fish die of hipoxia.