new tank, revised

Question
Hi,
Needing some advice as brand new tank owners.

My  neighbor, Jack, is moving away, and he had a 12-gallon established tank with 2 tetras, a molly, and an algae eater. At the same time, my son and I were trying to establish a 20-gallon tank to which we were adding ammonia, waiting for the nitrites to change. This didn't happen in time for the move, so I had to think quickly.

What we did was this: we took about 2 cups of the gravel from Jack's tank, along with a big fake rock and put that into the 20-gallon tank. Then we drained 90% of the water and put as much of Jack's water in as we could get in the move. We then had to add about 50% new treated water to the 20-gallon tank. I hoped this would allow Jack's fish to survive in the new tank, but I'm not comfortable with the ammonia readings I'm still getting in the 20-gallon tank. I added Ammo-Lock - should I keep adding it? Will it interfere with what the tank has to do?

Thanks for any advice you have,

Maria Capp  

Answer
Hello,

My advice is to switch from using Ammo-lock to using a product called Cycle. Cycle helps through the entire nitrogen cycle, it is not limited to ammonia. It will add a lot of beneifical bacteria to your tank.

Other then that, it seems you are on the right track! Continue to monitor your levels, and do partial water changes if they ever begin to get too high.

Best of luck,

From Stephanie