This is probably a very controversial subject 😉
I am an admin on another aquaforum, and I can say for normal tanks, and for beginners I would always follow the ‘ordinary’ advice with regards to maturing tanks etc.
But when it comes to my own practice (with 10 years of experience) and mainly having small tanks under 25 liters with parosphromenus species, – its a different thing. I do not follow ‘normal’ procedure anymore. Not even the slightest :blush:
I use pure RO water, I dont mature the water,(but I do lower it to ph 4.5) I dont use filters. I usually prepare a tank just by filling it with water, adding substrate maybe, or if not adding lots of leaves or peat. Then putting in a few plants (javamoss mainly) and possibly an almond leave. Then I add fish.
Because I have quite a lot of tanks, and quite a lot of offspring, I need to move fish quite often, – I think its through this that I have found my own way where its actually just working. If I need to move some off spring I set up a new tank as described above and simply move them the same day. I might use some of the water from the old tank, but not at all always.
Of course I dont recomend this procedure to someone who has not got a lot of experience, because I think what is important is that there’s probably always the case in which I would not do so … I think that without thinking about it I do take note on how things are doing. If I have fry in a tank that has not been cleaned for a long time, I do take more care that I dont move them to a tank with water that is very much different. I think my main concern is really that the water that you move the fish to is close to what they come from. Too big a change is not good. That relates to ph and the amount of ‘waste’ that might have been gathering.
But I never measure amonia f.inst.
I wish I could say that I then of course is very careful about changing lots of water … but :blush: I cant even say that. I change or fill up regularly but not overly much. And of course without filters waterchanges regularly is important – in particular if you have more fish than the normal ‘one pair’.
Maybe it is because of the low ph that this procedure is possible, – I dont know about that really.
But I have also set up tanks for bettaes such as albimarginata, betta mahachai with water at 7 and I have done it the same way, no preparation really.