Good Idea???

I was talking to my biology teacher today and I asked him how long I should wait to put my 5 month old pleco in my new 45gal tank that's almost through cycling. It's been up and running with 4 tetras and 1 bolivian ram for 5 weeks now and there is algae all over in it. I want to put my pleco in there and get him out of my old 10gal so he can have a bigger home. He told me that I could put him in any time because plecos are tough fish and they could withstand the high nitrogin in the tank. He said he moves his pleco ( which is the same kind as mine, sailfin, but older) from on tank to another in his class room when ever he wants and he does fine. He knows what he's talking about, he's had fish for many many years. I was woundering if anybody else can give some input on this and say wheather or not it is a good/safe idea.

 

Oh yeah here is how my water looks. I got it tested about a week ago. I'll try to go tomarrow and get it tested again to get a more up to date reading.

Nitrites: .8
Nitrates: 12.5
pH: 8
Amonia: 0

 

More recent test results would be nice. But based on the ones you gave, your nitrItes are too high which means either your tank hasn't finished cycling or something happened to some of your beneficial bacteria and it's going through a mini cycle. I would do a 50% water change every day until your nitrItes are at 0. Anything above that is toxic to fish.

As for the pleco, I would wait until you have the parameters of the 45 in check. Adding the pleco now will only increase the bioload and make the problem worse.

-Chelle

 

Thanks

I'll try to go like I said and get the water tested again. I thought that doing water changes would mess with the cycle? Well actually the bacteria is mostly in the gravel and filter right, so doing a water change shouldn't hurt actually. ok well I do that and I will post the results as soon as I can.

 

Water changes will slow the cycle down a little since you're remove the ammonia & nitrIte that the bacteria feed off of. But since you have fish in the tank, it's better to do water changes and keep the levels as low as possible so they don't harm the fish.

-Chelle