New Tank, New Fish, New Headache

[Markilious1]

just purchased a 46gal tank, and bought some fish from a pet store, 6 rosey barbs and 4 tiger barbs, well they um... act like little gangs, should i put two more tiger barbs in there to even up sides, they don't hurt one another, but you can see them chasing each other. i also want to add 2 silver dollars in about 3 days, but i don't know how they will get along with the fish already in there, the pet store said they are in the same class ( tropical semi-aggresive ) so, should i put them in there? thank you in advance for your advice.

 

[Sheridanp]

Whoa whoa, did you just purchase the tank and put water in and buy fish?

 

[Markilious1]

no, i bought the tank/rocks/filter/light/thermometer/PHstuff(yet to use), let it sit for a week like i read in "aqarium for dummies" book, then bought the fish, however, i never read anything about how many to buy. we (wife and i) bought the 6 rosey barbs first, then 2 days later, bought the 4 tiger barbs. i did research before setting this tank up, however the bacteria part is throwing me off. i totally understand it and such, but i don't think i cultivated the bacteria before i added the fish to the tank because my ammonia readings never spiked, nor did my nitrite reading, and i never even got any nitrate readings at all. and honestly, i didn't know how big of a part they (bacteria) played in the ecosystem of the tank itself. as for a cleaner fish, i read that i shouldn't purchase one of those until a month after my original fish were in and settled. i think i've screwed up, as of now, they fish have been in there for 48 hours and seem lively enough, but i'm dreading that ammonia spike i know is coming and i really don't know how to react to it when it happens. please don't hate me, i REALLY don't want to see them (the fish) pass on, so i've been doing a 10% water change daily, in a 5gal bucket getting the water right, in hopes this will help. should i be using a bucket though? what do the rest of you use when adding water after you have taken the % out? sorry so many questions, but my little idiot guide didn't cover all these. maybe i was the idiot for buying it, all in all this 46gal tank has already ran me $750 in supplies/fish.

 

[diademhill]

Dollars means you might be able to get Biospira......this is a refrigerated bacterial culture and will instantly cycle your tank - none of the dried or off the shelf products work.
If you can't get biospira you'll be doing a lot of water changes.....just add dechlorinator for the amount of new water. please don't add anything else.
Don't use the pH modifier - a stable ph is safer than a fluctuating one.
Don't buy any more fish for a month at least.

 

[Torrean]

You could also seed your filter with media from a healthy tank. Do you know anyone who has a fish tank that's been running for at least 3 preferably 6 months? If so you can ask them to replace a filter cartridge and give you the old one. You can put it straight into your filter (if it fits) if it doesn't you can cut it up or swish it (vigorously) in the water. If they are not willing to give you filter media another option is gravel or other ornaments from the tank. These surfaces carry a lot less bacteria than filter media but it's on there and it should seed your tank making your cycle faster and less dramatic. Take a clean stocking and put gravel from the top layer of your friends tank into the stocking. Then hang the stocking in your tank for 2ish weeks.

 

[onemisterchristian]

It's ok to have a lot of questions, so long as you have time to read a lot of answers.

First of all, the letting the tank sit for a week is fairly inaccurate. Just having water sit isn't going to show any nitrate, or ammonia because there is no source for it. Both of these come from waste. Which isn't in the tank. What you need to do is cycle your tank. However, This type of "fishless cycle" cannot be done with fish in the tank. It will surely kill them. So you have two options.
a) Take back the fish you got to the pet store for store credit (tell them they were dumb for selling you fish, knowing that you hadn't cycled the tank) and begin the fishless cycle.
B) Keep the fish in the tank and do what is called a cycle with fish. Beware this is generally considered to be pretty cruel on the fish and you will probably recieve a fair bit of ridicule. This method involves daily water changes to help reduce the waste toxins building up in your tank.

So, next for how many fish to buy, the very general rule is one inch of fish per us gallon. This however often requires adjusting for large fish (obviously a 20 inch fish won't fit in a 20 gallon tank) High waste producing fish (plecos) Or really active fast swimming schooling fish.

A bucket is fine for water changes. As long as you have never used it to hold anything that may be harmful to your fish. Soap, whatnot. Most aquariusts have invested in a nice fresh bucket for their fish.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.
Just my 2 cents (try to avoid the cycle with fish, I am one of those who think it's pretty devestating to see the effects of ammonia on the fish.)