Changing Tanks

[Jeff S]

I'm going to be moving my fish to a new tank soon and was wondering if I should transfer the water I already use or condition new water in the new tank by adding plant nutients and de-chlorinating. The water I'm using now looks clean but is brownish so I thought this would be a good time to start fresh. Any suggestions as to how to prepare the new water would be appreciated.

[Alex Veidel]

Well, your fish will probably experience the least amount of stress using the same water, so I would say that option is the safest (unless there's something wrong with your water). I'm planning on experimenting with some nifty cool strategies to clean up brown water, but I will say that if you start with new water, what's to keep it from just going brown again? If you're going to use new water and want to keep it clean, you might want to have a strategy in place.

Personally, I think I'll play around with some various freshwater mollusks to get my water looking cleaner.