Moving House

Do you intend setting the tank up again once you are in the new house? if you do, keep the filter media wet - float them in a container of dechlorinated water open to the air. The bacteria will go dormant rather than die straight away. They will wake up again once there is a source of food, but the longer they are dormant, the longer it takes them to wake up. I would test the tank with a dose of ammonia before risking any new fish. Even if it takes them several days to wake up it will be faster than starting afresh.
I would be inclined to follow the fishless cycling method which will go much faster.

However, if you intend lots of live plants, that's a different matter. Still keep the filter media wet, but when you set up the tank, put the plants in and wait until you know they are growing well, then add fish a few at a time - monitoring both ammonia and nitrite for several days after each addition.



To clean the tank, I use those plastic kitchen scourers that look like a ball of knitted brightly coloured plastic. They scrape the surface clean without scratching. Any limescale can be scraped away very carefully with some thing hard, or if it's really bad use white vinegar. But don't do this if you leave the sand in.

I would put the sand in a bucket and rinse it with dechlorinated water. Then store it in some container with some dechlorinated water. There is a whole host of micro-organsism in the substrate so it is best to preserve as many as you can.

If you can't keep them set you will be starting your cycle again from scratch once you have moved. Can you give them to the same place you gave your fish for safe keeping for the next few weeks?  If the filter could be run on a not her tank that would be brilliant for keeping the bacteria alive, then you could probably just set things back up as they were almost instantly.

@Sue if a small frozen prawn were added to the bucket with the filter do you think this would provide some ammonia to keep the filter bacteria from going dormant or would there need to be flow in there to supply the ammonia to the bacteria in enough quantity for it to make a difference??

Room temperature will work just fine, as will a locking container, though I think a bucket would work better as it will have more oxygen available to the bacteria. I'm not sure it will matter much as they will be going dormant anyway.

RE fish: I think you currently have harlequin rasboras, glowlight tetras and black phantom tetras. They will all be fine in harder water so should work fine.

Ok, that sounds like a plan. Maybe the harder water will open different fish up to me, as will be starting with a empty tank.

Yes, it says hardness Clarke is 7.14, supposedly slightly hard. Any other reading of any use?

mg CaCO3/l is average of 102

The two figures you give are the same thing in different units.

The units used in fish profiles are ppm (which is the same as mg/l CaCO3) and German degrees or dH.

The two numbers you need for looking at fish profiles are:
102 ppm
5.7 dH.


I don't call that hard at all. Hard for fish is 10+ dH, or 180+ ppm
Your new water is too soft for all hard water fish, and the only other fish that you need to avoid are those that need very soft water. The vast majority of soft water fish are fine in that hardness.


My water company has 6 classes of hardness - soft, moderately soft, slightly hard, moderately hard, hard, very hard. Your new water is right on the moderately soft/slightly hard boundary.
This is why we don't like words for hardness, numbers are much clearer. Despite having the word hard as part of yuor hardness, it isn't really hard at all for fishkeeping.

No, sorry. Guppies' hardness range is 143 to 536 ppm, and 102 ppm is too low.

There is no such thing as neutral hardness. There is only soft, hard and between.
Neutral applies to pH and not hardness. pH range is 6.9 and below = acidic, pH 7.0 = neutral, pH 7.1 and above = basic.
I would not take any shop's word for anything.


I googled Carlisle's water company, and it said United Utilities. Then I googled Spar shops in Carlisle, found one in Fusehill St, then typed their postcode (CA1 2HL) into United Utilities. They say the hardness for that postcode is 7.14 degrees Clarke, the same as you gave.

Your hardness converts to 102 ppm and 5.7 dH. This is fine for most soft water fish but not for hard water fish.

Well that's the fish revoked today. I am not moving for another week so was wondering if I should put in a drop of ammonia in to make up for no fish until I prepare the tank for storage?