# Moved to larger tank, questions



## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

The Internet seriously drives me crazy, too much conflicting information, even when not searching forums, and a lot of eejits.

Last night I moved my fish, gravel, driftwood, plants and filters from my 55 gallon to a 110. I didn't clean/rinse the filters or the gravel to maintain the bb. I added about 30 lbs of well rinsed play sand.

The 55 gallon water was GH 9, ph 7.4, temp 26. The 110 water was GH 3, so I added equilibrium and brought GH up to 6, ph was 7.4 after that, temp 26. I also added dechlorinator. I moved the fish over and topped up the 110 with 35 gallons of the old water.

This morning the GH is 6, KH 4, ph 7.4. All fish are still alive.

Questions:
Do I add Stability or Nite 2 used to help cycle new aquariums?
Is my tank cycled, or do I need to watch for a cycle?
My research on my current fish showed that KH should be 6 to 8 (couldn't find much referencing preferred GH specifically) and ph should be 7. Any suggestions as to how to bring up the KH slightly (seachem alkalyd?) and bring down the ph slightly?
Finally, when can we add more fish!!!!

Interesting side note, the 55 gallon was full and when I emptied the water I only got just under 40 gallons out before it was empty. Something to keep in mind when working out fish stocking capacity.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

IMO the tank is probably cycled. Good idea to check on it over the next few days to be sure. If there isn't fish in the tank creating ammomnia the BB will start to die off. Check your water parameters in a week or 2. If all is good, than the tank is good. I would wait until than before adding new fish.

There is no harm in adding stability. If you have it. Add it. Especially when you are introducing more fish.

If you raise the KH. The PH will raise also. They are directly related. 3-8 KH is recommended. Anything over a KH of 8 is starting to become medium to hard water. Lower your KH and the PH will follow.

Easiest way to lower PH is to do a water change. Tap water PH is usually lower than 7. So adding new fresh water will dilute the high PH. Test your tap water to see where it is. Ive tested water in POMO since I work there and have a tank at work. I think it was 6.7

What are you using to raise KH???

I will also say chasing a perfect PH/KH will drive you crazy. Although the number is important. Many of us on Bcaquaria have found stability to be more important than anything. EDIT: And regular water changes. 









Here are a couple of articles on water chemistry. PH and KH are grouped together with something called Buffering capacity.
https://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwh2oquality.htm

Always keep in mind BC water is very soft. Most things you read online are based on aquariums not in BC where the water is totally different.

Hope this helps. Just my 2 cents 

Cheers and happy fish keeping


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Agreed with the above.

You are probably cycled since you have the same bioload in the old and the new tank and you transferred the old, uncleaned filter and media over. Test, keep an eye on the fish and don't worry too much about changing the water parameters. Keeping everything stable rather than trying to make a lot of minute changes will benefit your fish & your peace of mind a lot more.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a tank is nothing....no seriously. 

Aka keeping stable


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Thank you all so much for the advice! I have read lots on GH, KH, ph, including the sticky on this forum, but not finding too much clear, practical information as to what to do if parameters are off.

I don't add anything for KH, just wondered if I should, but it sounds like since it is at KH 4, it is good.

I add equilibrium to bring the GH up to 6, but find that the GH climbed over time in my old tank. I have some crushed coral in the filter as advised by my lfs when I started, but thought this was for KH/buffering. It's still in there. I have been adding less equilibrium to try to slowly bring the GH down.

My tap water is usually 6.4. I have been having problems with my ph being on the high side for my fish. In 2 of the tanks I had 3d backgrounds that were leaching and are now removed. But in my 55 I had no rocks at all, just flourite and regular aquarium gravel, store bought driftwood.
Ph 7.4 is ok then? I think it is supposed to be 7


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

I wonder if the references I looked at regarding water parameters by fish species were referring to GH rather than KH when they recommended values of, for example, between 4 and 8 for black skirt tetra, 6 to 10 for King tiger pleco, etc


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## Gfish (Jan 28, 2014)

Your ph is a little high but it's stable which as Justin said is most important I fully agree 

I'm not sure why your lfs would recommend that you use coral in your tank though that is usually only used in cichlid tanks to my knowledge in order to raise the ph if I am mistaken though I'm sure someone will correct me on that 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I agree with everybody else - at least there is some consistency in this thread. :bigsmile:

Don't overthink pH. If it's consistent and stable, it's good...it's one sign that your KH is stable. The only time I'm finicky with water parameters for certain values is if I'm bringing in wild caught fish and over time, I try to acclimate them to a "range of acceptable values" If my KH is reasonably stable between water changes, that level of KH should be good.. Too low a KH could cause the pH to crash which is too extreme for many fish. For my community tanks, I prefer a KH of 3dH or so. Anything less, I would change the water more frequently to prevent pH crashes. The higher the bioload, the higher the KH I try to maintain because the whole nitrogen cycle will burn through carbonates and a higher fish load makes greater demands on your KH. Normally when references or websites talk about hardness of water, they're referring to GH. KH is just a measure of carbonates whereas GH is a measure of calcium and magnesium, so you might be right in your last post.


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

It could have been crushed oyster shells rather than coral. It was a while ago, sold in bulk at the lfs.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Did you change it from KH to GH on your thread or am I going crazy ????

Also, most charts/refrences show GH and KH values for an aquarium being the same. In between 3-8 GH/KH. 

PH Neutral aka 7.0 is just a refrence. Most fish do well at this range so its become a good starting point for aquarists. 

Coral or oyster shells are a thing from the past now that there is buffers but some people swear by it. I wouldn't make a change to what you are doing if you have had success with that. There are 10 ways to skin a cat! no pun intended  Crushed coral and oyster shells are 2 ways. If you want to try a different method than go ahead. So many times people get conflicting advice. What works for one, doesn't always work for another


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Only ten??? 

Hahaha couldn't resist.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Vancitycam said:


> Only ten???
> 
> Hahaha couldn't resist.


Not nice Cam LOL


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I would not get too much into numbers (PH,GH, KH)... I did that when I first got into Apistos and paid heavy price for it.... yes it is important to monitor parameters but like other BCAers said, it is more important to keep your tank stable.. I think your tank will be ok unless you add tons of fishes at once( even that might be ok). I would wait at least 2 weeks then add fishes if you want more fishes..


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

I find that my KH and GH values are usually different numbers. My GH in my old tank was 9 and KH was 5. I don't know why. 

I am still trying to figure out what could work for me. Once my old tank was cycled I was going merrily along adding equilibrium with each water change, enough to raise the amount of tap water I was adding to 6. Then one day I decided to check GH in the tank and found it was 13! So I did a few 25% water changes over a week with water with no equilibrium added to bring down the tank GH.

I haven't lost/killed any fish for quite a while, so I must be doing somewhat ok. Great advice on this thread to get me on the right track. Thanks everyone.


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Just got a pm saying that my tank could go through a small cycle since I didn't clean the gravel. My thought was that if a lot of the tank's beneficial bacteria is in the substrate, that to move it over without rinsing it would save the bb and prevent a re-cycle. Since I just spent the afternoon rescaping and replanting, I am not going to take out the substrate to clean it.

But good to know for anyone else moving to a new tank. To clean or not to clean gravel, that was one of my questions during the planning phase!

I will keep an eye on my water and hope for the best. Half of the substrate in the new tank is new anyway, since I doubled my tank size.

One other point, I have seen posts recommending pool filter sand as a cheaper alternative to lfs sand. I checked with a pool store, and that sand is sharp, with angular grains. Since I have Cories, I opted for washed play sand from Rona. It is sterilized (kiln fired) quartz and only $8 for 55 lbs. Processed in Vancouver/Surrey too, which is kind of cool.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Playsand is too light and too fine. Filter killer if you have fish that stir it up a lot.


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Oh Charles! Well I will see how it goes and check my filters next weekend. 

Someone gave me a 20 lb bag of 3M colourquartz white sand, but it was much finer than the play sand and had uniform granules, whereas the play sand granules are varying sizes so less likely to compact? I liked that the play sand was quartz (inert) and sterilized, and had a nice natural colour. It didn't cloud the tank at all. I didn't like the bright white of the other stuff, and that it was ceramic coated crystals which might degrade in time. 

I have two raised beds of regular aquarium gravel/flourite mix at either end of the tank. The intakes on my filters are above the gravel beds. The sand is 2 to 3 inches below these in the centre of the tank, so not too near the intakes. It would not be fun to take it out.

It looks good, Max calls it the cory flats.

Still hoping to one day get to the point where the tanks are running smoothly, all is settled and I can just sit back and watch the fish....or does that ever happen??


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I always conceder fish tank keeping as a trade. Everyone has an opinion! Many will tell you something won't work, some will tell you it will. Grab information from everyone and form your own opinion.  Try things out and figure out what works best for you and your tank. Being proactive will help out a ton. If the tank mini cycles Oh well. If you are on top of it, it wont be an issue. Keep up with water changes and you will be fine. If you are worried about a mini cycle, you can always add an ammonia sponge temporarily as back up.  

As for sitting back an just watching the tank. HAHAHA that never happens!!! Not at my house anyways. The wife always comments that Im always working on my tanks. You want a nice tank? Be prepared to work on it.  Overtime as the system grows, you will work on it less and have more time for enjoyment.


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

jbyoung00008 said:


> If you raise the KH. The PH will raise also. They are directly related. 3-8 KH is recommended. Anything over a KH of 8 is starting to become medium to hard water. Lower your KH and the PH will follow.
> 
> Here are a couple of articles on water chemistry.
> https://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/chemistry.html
> A practical approach to freshwater aquarium water chemistry


Thanks Justin! The puck has finally dropped. Those links should be stickied, they are very clear and practical. Great resource for beginners. I feel much more confident about what I am doing now that I understand it.


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