Oscars nitrate and PH

Question
Chris
Hi hope you are doing well. I'm ready to move my big boy to his new 55 and I need some advice as to how I should do this. I have 10 black skirt tetra's in the 55 presently and I'm going to move them to his tank. How should I do this with out stressing out everyone. Should I empty all the 55 gallon's water and start new or should I slowly add the Oscar. I said before I have never had Oscars and I don't want to stress him out to much because when I rescued him and moved him to his new tank he gave himself ick. HELP!!!
Thanx
Liz
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi, I rescued a 8" Oscar and a 4" jack demsey and I have never had a Oscar before. I have tried everything from having 3 filtration systems on 25% water changes weekly and using amquil regularly and I can not get a grasp on keeping it's PH up and Nitrate down. When I adopted him out of the paper and brought them home I check their PH and it was only 6.0 bad:< and It took 3 hours to slowly add him to his new aquarium. They had them in a 20 gallon. I know that he needs a 55 at the least and I am literally in the process of transferring my fish out of my 55 gallon to a new tank so he can have it to himself. Please any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. On a good note this has got to be one of the best fish I have ever had the opportunity to own. He knows when I get home every day and he eats regularly by hand. I truly believe this fish has feelings for me. Its cool to have a pet fish.

Thanks
Liz
-----Answer-----
Hi Liz;

Good for you in rescuing those guys! I'm glad they found a friend.

Don't alter the pH by using chemicals. Chemicals cause fluctuations that are more harmful than just letting the fish get used to what the pH tends to be. 6.0 is really not that bad. You just don't want to let it drop lower than that. Many oscar tanks are pretty low because they are such messy guys. Stable pH is much more important that a certain pH. Just a 25% water change and gravel vacuuming once a week should keep it at a pretty normal and stable range. If he needs it, make two 25% changes every week.

The only permanent solution to the problem, as you know, is to move him to the 55. Also avoid overfeeding. Too much food leads to too much waste and excess waste is what leads to a high nitrate level and low pH too. Only feed what he can eat in about 2 minutes, once a day. Feed a good quality pelleted or stick food. Cheap foods have lots of excess 'filler' in them. Live 'feeder fish' create a lot of waste in the tank as well as risking introducing disease into the tank.

Oscars are cool guys. They do have a great personality and really get to know who feeds them.

Have fun!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Answer
Hi Liz;

Good to hear from you again! I am glad you have a new tank ready for him. He will like it.

To move the fish, just do it as if you are bringing them home from the fish store. Bag them up with their old tank water leaving plenty of air in the bag. Let the bags float on the destination tank water for 15 minutes. During that time, take a little bit of tank water where the fish is floating and pour it into the bag. Do this 3 or 4 times during the 15 minute floating period. Close the bag up each time being sure there is plenty of air in the bag again. After the floating period, net the fish from the bag and release them into their new tanks. Throw away the transport water. Don't add it to the tank.

If you still have the dempsey, he will eat the skirts. Just making sure you know about that. ;-)

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins