STERILE TANKS

Question
Hi, I'm new to the hobby and have some fancy guppies in 5- 10gal. tanks w\o gravel. I was told that I could start with them but I am reading about the best care for them and I will not have their colors fade or subject them to any stress at all. I do daily test and water changes about every 3 to 4 days in these tanks. I have great well water, do I need to use stress coat? I just stopped using any chems. at all. I'm I doing the right thing for them? I have 2 larger tanks cycling w/ cory cats,w/o any problems at this time, To bad petsmart is more into making $ than the health of the fish!!!   Thanks, I'm retired and can spend 80% of my time for them. yes, 20% is for sleep!  ha,ha thanks again.

Answer
Welcome to this hobby if there's one thing you will be doing alot of it's research.. seems like you are a pretty knowledgable guy already and willing to learn cause that's exactly what you want to do.. read read read.

anyways... Guppies... hmm how do i explain this. .they are nice fish but. .they are not the most hardy fish in the world. They have been so overbred that they are a very weak fish now... unfortunately. You seem to be doing the best thing for them right now, your doing your water param test and water changes... water changes are so important you have no idea... well most people dont. I doubt that the well water needs to be treated at all.. you can test the water and see what the params of that are... just to be sure. All you need to monitor is the params when the tanks are cycling that's the hardest time for fish.... and guppies.. in a cycling tank some will surely die.. (they just cant handle the param spikes)... Anyways.. yes you look like your doing a wonderfull job... just remember bigger tanks are easier to maintain.. and by the way your going right now a big one might be alot funner and easier to keep :)

good luck i'll be here with any further quesitons.