New Tank Ready Yet

[AndrewMilne]

Set up my new tank about 6 days ago, now I realise you should normally wait at least 4 weeks to put tropical fish in but I have done one of those 6 in 1 tests and it appears the water is OK to good condition. Is it still advisable to wait?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid just letting a tank run does not cycle it.
 
The reason your water tests look good is because there's nothing in the tank to be producing anything! But the minute you introduce fish, the ammonia levels would start to rise, because fish produce ammonia in their wastes, and that would make your new fish very sick, or even kill them, as ammonia is very toxic.
 
When we cycle a tank properly, we grow a colony of good bacteria that will eat the ammonia and stop the water becoming toxic. We always recommend a 'fishless cycle', where you add an artificial source of ammonia, from a household cleaning solution, that will feed the bacteria until you have enough to support your fish.
 
I suggest you have a read of some of the stickies in this section of the forum, and come back with any questions you might have

 
Incidentally, you'll want to sort out some proper (liquid or tablet based) test kits rather than test strips as, for one thing, they're not very accurate, and most don't include a test for ammonia.

 

[Gruntle]

Totally agree with fluttermoth here. Your water has been sitting for a week, which may allow some of the chemicals in the water to "gas off" but nothing else. There will be virtually no beneficial bacteria in the system yet, in order to get them you will need to add an ammonia source and let the colony grow.
 
If you have friends close by with tanks, you may be able to borrow up to 1/4 of their established media (which will not cause issues in their tank) and it will give you a kick start on the cycling process. Swap their filter media with your own (filter floss, ceramic rings, or whatever your filter contains).
 
You may also be lucky with local fish stores, they will sometimes let you have "dirty" media, which contains beneficial bacteria.
 
If you can get Dr Tim's One and Only, it will definitely help, provided you follow the instructions.
 
Failing this, you will have about 4-6 weeks before your tank is safe for fish. Which may seem like a long time, but you shouldn't experience any deaths (which is not only sad, but can be expensive).
 
Best of luck, please ask any questions you have.

 

[BaylorPerez]

I agree with the deaths being expensive, as i have run a tank for 3 days without fish then introduced 10 fish(each 2Inchs long) so i was pretty much stocked up with my 20Gal, but i wasnt aware of the death count that would come into play as i lost 6 within the 1st week due to me not having any fish within the tank for any bacteria to be present so they all died of ammonia poisioning. it doesnt help that i was limited on information and spent about 70$ on fish for nothing