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Background: I am entering the fishkeeping hobby completely backwards - I started with building a glorified tub-pond/water feature in my backyard (about 100 gallons total across 7 different pools, with a recirculating water current), then added plants, then added fish. I knew I would need to bring the fish in for the winter, because the pools aren't deep enough for them to survive the cold, and I knew cycling tanks could take 4-6-8 weeks, so I started cycling two of my three tanks at the beginning of August. Being ambitious, I went with the fishless "How I Cycle" method outlined at aquariumscience.org with multiple additives to provide nutrients to the various beneficial bacteria, with all the recommended initial additions (pond mud innoculate, triple phosphate fertilizer, baking soda, plaster of paris, baker's yeast, sugar, epsom salt, pure ammonia, iron sulfate, and my own hopeful creative source of nitrite, celery powder) - plus daily additions of ammonia, fish food, sometimes baking soda and celery powder. Cranked up the aeration on the sponge filters and bubblers, cranked up the heat on the heaters, and let it all do its thing. It seemed to be going well - the water cleared, ammonia is definitely getting processed from day to day, although I'm not very good about adding precise amounts. I've been testing with test strips, and I started seeing bigger drops in ammonia day-to-day the last few days, so I did the full API test kit this morning - pH was sky high (my well water is 8.0-8.5 to start with), ammonia 1.0ppm, nitrite 0.5 or 1.0ppm, nitrate 5.0-10.0ppm (I just have a bad memory, I can't remember the precise shade now.) Not bad for 15 days in, I added some ammonia and fish food and carried on. So here's the urgent part: around noon today, I checked the weather forecast and discovered the overnight low was supposed to be 49dF!!! My ponds are relatively shallow and follow the air temperature fairly closely, within a few degrees - and the overnight lows all week are forecast in the mid-50s. WAY too cold for the fish, and temps I wasn't expected for another month! It's still summer!! So I spent the afternoon (when I should have been sleeping, I work nights) draining the ponds and collecting the fish into 5gal buckets. I figured my best bet was keeping them inside in the buckets overnight with sponge filters for aeration and heaters for warmth, lids to prevent jumpers, and hope the heaters aren't too much for the small volume and close proximity. [Tiger barbs (7), danios (30ish), white cloud minnows (4), dwarf gouramis (2), and guppies (4) - tiger barbs separate from the latter two] My thought was to do a 90-100% water change on the two 20gal tanks that have been cycling, and add the fish in, and just switch to fish-in cycling. I have a third 29gal tank that I literally just got set up and started cycling two days ago, with all the same additions still fresh. The original plan and the way the tanks are set up was: Tank A - 29gal - heated to 76dF - dwarf gouramis and guppies + future otocinclus, low current, well-aerated, plant baskets at the top edge, moss ledges and some plants in substrate Tank B - 20gal - heated to 74dF - tiger barbs and white cloud minnows + future bristlenose pleco, well-aerated, heavily planted in substrate Tank C - 20gal - unheated + high current - danios + future flagfish + future hillstream loaches, some plants and moss After all this explanation - my question is, should I only do a big water change on the two 20gal tanks that have been cycling for a few weeks, and put the fish in those (which will be temporary homes for some until the 29gal is ready)? Or should I just change out the water in all three tanks, ignore all the additives, and divide the fish as originally planned? I'm concerned about the additives being at levels that are toxic or harmful to the fish, since the tanks aren't fully cycled and the additives haven't been broken down by bacteria. As long as I keep the tiger barbs separate from the gouramis and guppies, I have both options. Does anyone see any concerns with either plan? [Additional notes on fish distribution: originally there were 15 guppies and 8 danios in the ponds. The danios bred and bred, while the guppies apparently died off or were easy for raccoons to catch. I plan to add more guppies and maybe tiger blood badis to this large tank, and hopefully find homes for some of the danios. Just in case someone thinks my fish distribution across tanks is odd.] [Additional notes on pH: my well water runs about 8.0-8.5 pH, and clearly I didn't need to add baking soda to raise pH. I was hoping for nitrobacteria to draw it down some, or I'd correct the sky-high number with a water change. I know that I'll have to be careful with ammonia toxicity even at 8.0, but hey, no chlorine to treat!]