Adding fish after fishless cycling

[Squirrelbuddies]

I'm just about ready to add fish to my 55 gallon!! The tank took 30 days to cycle. I add 30 drops of ammonia daily (1.5ml or just over a quarter teaspoon.)

My question is: How many fish should I add (at once) to keep the bacteria going? I will be starting out with the congo tetras -- plan to keep 8 in total. Should I add all 8 at once or maybe 5 one day, three more after a couple of days? I will also be adding USD cats too, along with a pair of kribs.

Hooray! This is all very exciting!

 

[WILDER]

Add the 8 congo's lucky thing i love them fish, have you done a 40% water change to fetch nitrates down.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I'm working on the water change this evening. Just finished testing - nitrate is between 10-20 ppm.

Have a little algae which needs to be cleaned up, too, along with a minor reorganization of the plants.

 

[WILDER]

Don't go to mad with the water changes as that not a high reading now, don't want to set you back to cycle, out of interest what is your tap nitrate.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Nitrate level in the tapwater is between 0-5.0ppm. Actually, closer to 0.

 

[WILDER]

You lucky thing, that's great.

 

[clutterydrawer]

are you sure you tank nitrAte is only 10-20? I would've thoguht it would be much higher after a fishless cycle...

but anyway. after a fishless cycle you can add more fish at once that you usually would because of the large bacterial colony you've developed. I would probably add four at a time, check your water paramaters for a few days to make sure there's no unexpected ammonia/nitrIte spikes, then add more bit by bit. I am probably overcautious but better safe than sorry!

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

are you sure you tank nitrAte is only 10-20? I would've thoguht it would be much higher after a fishless cycle...

Yes, I checked it this morning and again tonight. During the cycle, it never went over 40-80. (I have a hard time telling the difference between 40 and 80 on the chart.)

Last week, I did a water change (12 gallons) so I could clean up the algae and add more plants. On January 30th, it dropped down to 10.0 ppm. I think the plants really helped in keeping the nitrate down.

Also, maybe my ammonia is not as strong as what others use? While cycling, my ammonia reading never went over 4.0 ppm and I was adding 55 drops daily for the first week...