new tank - new fish

[tmax1]

Ok here goes. This is my first post and I will be as brief as possible. I have 4 tanks. Eclipse 6 occupied by 2 plecostomus, one female guppy and 2 juvenile male guppies. Second Eclipse 6 with one pair of guppies, 1 plecostomus, and 1 albino cory. Tank 3 is a 15H with 2 juvenile guppies and 8 fry and 2 little cories. Tank 4 I set up last Thursday 3/4/04 when I bid on a dozen mixed guppies from Aquabid. I have been using “Cycle” to do the impossible – I can’t find any Bio-Spira in town anywhere. The PH in all the tanks is 7.6, Alkalinity is 120, hardness is 120, Nitrites are at 0 and Nitrates are at 20 in all the tanks. I used the Mardel 5 in 1-test strips and I don’t have an ammonia test kit. I have been losing my guppies steadily but I hope I have that under control now. I just found this site in the last week and I have read almost every post I can find. The question is “How do I introduce 18 guppies of various ages into my 20H without killing them?” Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
By the way: all the tanks have gravel and some small plastic and real plants, the Eclipse 6 tanks have their regular filtering system, the 15H has a Penguin 550 pulling through the undergravel filter and the 20H has the Penguin 550, the undergravel filter and a Penguin 160 with the bio wheel. Temp in all tanks is 80F

[bortsamson]

well
to start
I assume 20H u mean 20G?
so, 18 fish in that is WAY WAY WAY too many.
And two plecos in one 6 gallon tank? I dont mean to knock you but dood! even one pleco is a 6 is too much. They get big, big big.
You need to do some serious fish returns. At least untill your levels start dropping. You are going to start losing major fish soon, not just guppies here and there.


BTW I dont mean to sound mad or anything, we all have made mistakes.
And just so I am not spouting off, by H DO you mean gallons?

[OrionGirl]

20H likely means its the 20 high--same footprint as a 10, just taller.

The high tanks actually are deceiving--you really can't add much more fish than you can to a 10, since the surface area is still the same size.

To add all those fish, plan on doing DAILY 50% changes, and upgrading to bigger tanks. I'd return the plecos--all will outgrow the smaller tanks, and only a bristlenose and some of the exotics will stay small enough for a 20.

[tmax1]

Thanks for the input so quickly. By 20 H I do mean High same as the 15 Gallon. I plan to spread the fish out to the other tanks after a quarantine period. I figured I would have to do lots of water changes and have my water sitting at the ready. I have another 30 gallon tank but I was running out of space to put it. Maybe I should set that one up and forget the 6 gallons.