At Last Tank Cycled

[zodiac]

After a long frustrating wait and a few posts on here my 20g tank has eventually cycled
last night the nitrite was still 5ppm when i ckecked it this morning it was 0ppm after doing a 90% water change and letting every thing settle for a couple of hours i got some fish i got 5 zebra danios 5 silver tipped tetra and 2 male and 4 female guppys, does this sound ok?
is there room for a couple more? should i add them now if there is or wait a while? i dont want to under stock and let the bacteria die back but i also dont want to go over the top and lose all the fish!
what would live with these fish, i would like a couple of dalmation mollys if they will fit


thanks for all your help.....

 

[Don155]

Congrats dude!! With the guppies, you will probably have fry in short order.... LoL

I don't see any problems with the stocking, but I'm not real experienced either so I'll let the others chime in on that. If you have room, you might think about a small shoal of Corys (Pandas are very cute and playful.)

Have fun with your new fishies!!

-Don T.

 

[zodiac]

Thanks Don i will check them out

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

As it's a completely new setup, I wouldn't have added so many fish. I, and many other members and LFS's, would recommend only adding 6 or so fish to start with, as you need to build up slowly or your filters won't be able to cope with the large amount of fish waste, and Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates will start to build.

However, now you have them, just keep an eye on your water parameters, and if there are any problems just carry out regular water changes.

 

[Cheffi]

As it's a completely new setup, I wouldn't have added so many fish. I, and many other members and LFS's, would recommend only adding 6 or so fish to start with, as you need to build up slowly or your filters won't be able to cope with the large amount of fish waste, and Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates will start to build.

However, now you have them, just keep an eye on your water parameters, and if there are any problems just carry out regular water changes.

Sorry to butt in here but isn't that the whole point of the fishless cycle. That you have been feeding ammonia in the quantities to ensure a large load of bacteria to cope with a large amount of fish?

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

As it's a completely new setup, I wouldn't have added so many fish. I, and many other members and LFS's, would recommend only adding 6 or so fish to start with, as you need to build up slowly or your filters won't be able to cope with the large amount of fish waste, and Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates will start to build.

However, now you have them, just keep an eye on your water parameters, and if there are any problems just carry out regular water changes.

Sorry to butt in here but isn't that the whole point of the fishless cycle. That you have been feeding ammonia in the quantities to ensure a large load of bacteria to cope with a large amount of fish?

Yes, however, it is still not recommended to introduce more than 6 or so fish to an aquarium at any one point.

 

[Cheffi]

Can you tell me why not? Surely if there isn't sufficient ammonia being introduced with the new fish bacteria will die off, which you have been developing during your cycle?

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

Can you tell me why not? Surely if there isn't sufficient ammonia being introduced with the new fish bacteria will die off, which you have been developing during your cycle?

Look, different people always have different theories on when to introduce large quantities of fish. However, if you search the internet, or ask your local LFS, you will find it is still not recommended that you ever add more than 6 fish at any one time.

Of course, other people have other views like yourself. But if your going by the book and playing it safe, you should still consider the amount of fish you should add to any aquarium all at once.

 

[Cheffi]

As it's a completely new setup, I wouldn't have added so many fish. I, and many other members and LFS's, would recommend only adding 6 or so fish to start with, as you need to build up slowly or your filters won't be able to cope with the large amount of fish waste, and Amonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates will start to build.

However, now you have them, just keep an eye on your water parameters, and if there are any problems just carry out regular water changes.

Sorry to butt in here but isn't that the whole point of the fishless cycle. That you have been feeding ammonia in the quantities to ensure a large load of bacteria to cope with a large amount of fish?

Yes, however, it is still not recommended to introduce more than 6 or so fish to an aquarium at any one point.

I have taken this section from a Fishless Cycling article published by David Klima on bluecrayfish.com which backs up what I have been given to understand....
The reasons why I prefer fishless cycling:

1. Fishless cycling is faster than conventional cycling with fish. This is because in fishless cycling, much more ammonia is used than would be generated by the waste of fish. This leads to a faster build up of good bacteria in the aquarium.

2. When you are finished with a fishless cycle, you can fully populate the aquarium with pets right away, without risk of ammonia and nitrite spikes. This is because in fishless cycling, much more ammonia is used than would be generated by the waste of fish. This leads to the growth of a much larger colony of good bacteria than would be grown by traditional cycling with fish. After a traditional cycle with fish, aquarists need to add their pets slowly, over time, to avoid adding too high of a bio-load too quickly and getting an ammonia spike or a nitrite spike. After a fishless cycle, the colony of good bacteria is large enough to fully populate the tank with inhabitants, right away

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

Another persons opinion, which is fine by me.

However, what I am trying to lead you to understand is, alot of people are still cautious about adding large amounts of fish immedietely, regardless of whether a fishless cycle has taken place or not.

 

[Cheffi]

Of course I understand that, I will be cautious when adding any amount of fish into my new tank. However one of the reasons I'm doing the fishless cycle is so that I can more or less fully stock my tank from day one. This is most important when introducing a fish such as Malawi as I have read. What is confusing is when one reads the pinned threads re cycling which tells you one thing then someone else comes along and says the opposite. Most confusing for some, and confusion leads to mistakes.

 

[zodiac]

Another persons opinion, which is fine by me.

However, what I am trying to lead you to understand is, alot of people are still cautious about adding large amounts of fish immedietely, regardless of whether a fishless cycle has taken place or not.

I was under the impression that when you fishless cycle a tank you are adding much more ammonia than your 1" per gallon of fish would produce then you have to fully stock the tank (once the cycle is complete) to keep the amount of bacteria required fed, what is the point of building up a good reserve of bacteria and then putting 6 fish in the tank and letting the bacteria that have taken so long to grow die back? maybe i misunderstood the whole concept if i have got something wrong here please correct me, i have seen from reading this forum that some advise fully stocking within a day or two of cycling and some dont but as said earlier in this post isnt that the advantage of fishless cycling, apart from the obvious bonus that no fish are sacrificed in order to get your tank up and running

 

[Cheffi]

Nice to know I'm not the only one who read it that way zodiac