My Tank Has Recovered! Hooray!

[PrairieSunflower]

Not long ago I posted about how one of my tanks was being killed off by disease. I got some opinions and suggestions from this board (as well as some other people). In the end I decided to keep my two filters cycled rather than starting fresh and gave my tank a very thorough cleaning with hot water and a good scrub only. I gave my plants a good pruning and even scrubbed the leaves clean. I replaced the sand with new gravel (turns out I prefer gravel even if it is harder to clean). I then set it all up and did the move and put new fish in it (new as in fish that weren't in there during the disease period).

So, I placed my two female guppies in there who were evacuated to the male tank in the early stages and have also placed a male guppy in with them. I've also had 3 fry born in the tank.

They've been in there nearly two weeks now and are thriving completely disease free!

My red cherry shrimp had moved into my male guppy tank as well but they have only just moved into a tank of their own... I am planning a little breeding project with them so I can raise enough to spread them out into my other tanks.

So... I now have a large tank with only 3 adult guppies and 3 fry. I am intending to get some more fish starting in about the second week of September.

Obviously, my filters are now only cycled to the point of coping with a small number of fish... so, I need some advice on how to introduce new fish to my tank without throwing the stats out of whack. I can't quite figure out what number to be adding.

What I have now...

1 female guppy (a really big girl at nearly 4 inches long!!)
1 female guppy (juvenile of nearly 4 months, about 2 inches long)
1 male guppy (juvenile of nearly 4 months, about 2 1/2 inches long and his tail hasn't even started to fill out yet! He will be returning to the male tank when I introduce new fish to this tank)
3 guppy fry (just a few days old)

What I want to add in time...

2 platies (females)
3 guppies (females)
6 neon tetras

The guppies and platies will be juveniles when added so I am sure I can just add each in the desired numbers... maybe 2 weeks apart? But... what about the neon tetras? I've not had them before and from what I read they are happier in larger groups? So, would they be alright added in groups of either 2 or 3 at a time with a couple weeks wait before the next bunch arrives?

 

[hensonc4098]

I would add the 6 neons at once, depending on your tank size and what filters you are running. They do prefer to be in groups. Just make sure the tank is well settled and established before adding them, as they don't tend to do well in new setups.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My filter has been running for about 3 months now, so its cycled. My tank has just gotten over the plague and been completely cleaned (except the filters as I wanted to keep it cycled).

If I've added the 3 guppies and 2 platies, which would bring my total of fish up to 8 plus 3 fry, by then end of September/beginning of October... would that make my tank ready enough (biologically) to handle adding 6 neons at once? That's what I worry about as I don't want to create an ammonia spike.

Forgot to add, my tank is over 22 galons (its either 22.4 or 24.2... I forget which I calculated it out to be.)