Hi and
to TFF. (Tropical FishForums.net)
The method of cycling you are now inadvertantly doing is refured to on here as a fish-in cycle. This is where you gradually build-up a stock of fish over several weeks or months untill the tank is fully stocked
We don't normally recomend it due to high mortality rates and keeper work-loads, as a result of the process deliberately exposing the fish to toxic chemicals, namely ammonia and nitrIte, while the tank cycles.
Leaving the tank for a week after adding a "bacteria in the bottle" product will have done nothing
The bacteria in a bottle is a snake oil that does nothing and a cycle cannot start untill there is an ammonia source. Basically you wasted a week and some cash, no doubtedly on the dreaded LFS's (Local Fish Shop's) advice
You will quikly find that fishkeepers have a love-hate relationship with LFS's.
X-ray tetras, like any type of tetra, are best in groups of 6+, so I'd recomend a few more as your next fish
Mollies will be fine with them, but after a pair of them or two after upping the tetra's group numbers, you will be fully stocked untill the 6 month point, where the tank can be refured to as mature
Do the tetras first and the mollies after, or visa versa, not together as the tank won't handle it as well if both go in together
For the moment, I'd advise you to get hold of a
Liquid Regent based test kit for water check-ups. This will allow you to check on the water quality during the cycle, and take the likely nessisary appropriate action on the results
Don't bother getting strips. They work out more expencive and are about as accurate as asking your next door neibour to make up some numbers randomly for the watertest results
Go light on feeding and do 20-30% waterchanges daily untill you can get the test kit
After this, you should do a waterchange whenever there is detectable ammonia or nitrite in a test result. Try to test twice daily if possible, but daily should be minimum during the cycle
Once they have settled to zero and remained there for a week, you are ready for a few more fish, and the process repeats again. Fish-in cycling is avoided by most due to these workloads. Most on here prefur fishless cycling using bottled ammonia instead
After the tank has cycled and is full stocked you can stop daily testing and go onto weekly tests untill the 6 month mark. After 6 months, I tend to test as a curiosity, or on finding another problem, only
All the best
Rabbut
