Question about moving my reticulated hillstream loach.

[rsnprocess]

I have a hillstream loach that is in an 8 gallon biocube tank that is a bit crowded and he's being picked on a little a couple of fish in it. (It's a long story how these guys ended up together) The fish bump him if he get close to their shells; he moves away quickly; I don't know if they are biting him or not. I'd like to get him out of there.

I want to move him to my 29 gallon tank that's cycling. I don't have any other place to move him. My 29 gallon has been up and running with fish for a month and 4 days now I'm using Microbacter7 daily. I started with 3 tetra and slowly added fish from other tanks. I have 5 neons, 3 x-ray albino pristella tetras, and 2 honey gourami. I've been checking my water sometimes every day everything has been great until last Wed,
then for the first time my nitrite reading was .5, so I did a 20 percent water change and then started using Prime and continuing the Microbacter7. Also I cut the feeding back a little; it's so hard not to overfeed when you are new at this.

Do I have to wait until the nitrites are at 0 in the 29 gallon to move him? Even though I'm using Prime? I was told by a LFS guy not to do anymore water changes until the nitrites are down. Is that correct?

Also, I have a Fluval C4 filter in the 29 gallon. This filter size is for up 40 to 70 gallons . So I have a good current in there.

 

[nanu156]

hillstreams are really cool, but they need really fast moving water (like a power-head) to be kept and kept happy.
I can't imagine that with any type of crowd in 8 gallons (like as in more then 1 fish) that the 8 gallon tank is any better then a slightly cycled 29g tank.

Take some filter media from an established tank, and swish it really good in the new 29. (all of the brown gunk will go out into the water) the new filter will suck it up and it should help establish the biological filter as well as the cycle.

move the loach buy a power head ASAP