People Good With Stocking At The End Of A Cycle

[Twinklecaz]

Hi, I' decided to put this in another thread because I don't know if people necessarily look at my cycle thread (who would lol).

I'm just about cycled. Except for a couple of slight blips I've had double 0's at 12 hours for about a week now and plan to plant my tank and get my fish on Saturday. My final stocking plan is:

3 x Male Platy

2 x Female Honey Gourami ( or 1 male/female if I can't find 2 females)

6 x Panda Cory

6 x Neon Tetra.

Obviously I don't intend to get my Neons for about 6 months anyway so my question is about this....

I had planned to get the Platys and Gouramis this weekend (so as not to overload my newly cycled and delicate filter just in case it's not actually quite ready) and then my Pandas next weekend.......then it occured to me that that would be more than doubling my stock next weekend so might put me into a mini cycle. What do you think I should do? My worry is that if I was to get the Platys, Gouramis and Pandas all in one go that it would overload the filter and also stupidly that I'm not sure if my tank would have room for all those bags floating on it at once. But then I don't want to more than double my stock the following weekend coz I assume some of the bacteria created by the 5.00ppm will have died off and the filter will have adjusted to its small stocking. Is that right?

Any suggestions, ideas and words of wisdom would be much appreciated

 

[west-megaman]

Getting the platys and gouramis this weekend and the panda corys next weekend shouldn't be a problem, assuming that your tank is big enough. How big is the tank anyway?

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hiya, thanks.

60l. Don't worry we've been throught all that, I've changed my stocking ideas loads of times lol.

You really think it wouldn't overload the bacteria?

I did wonder about getting the Platys and Gouramis this week, 3 pandas next week and 3 the week after but I don't know if that's mean to the first 3.

 

[JoshuaA]

Decide what you want to stock initially and then slowly stock over the next few weeks/month.

Your filter will equalise for the low initial stocking level, which is safer than potentially overloading the filter and having it have to build up more bacteria.

I had a slight scare last night I had stocked 49% according to ##143### and I noticed a blip on the Nitrite test. However after test again 10 minutes later I had no Nitrite. It turned out to be cross contaminated for my other tank.

I will probably be giving a 2 weeks since first stocking before I introduce the Ram.

Remember your fish will be juvenile which is an added bonus as they produce a lot less waste. Perhaps it is possible to go full on 100% and not notice anything but I don't think it would be safe anyway.

What I did for the tank was dose the tank as normal the night before I got the fish then in the morning like 20 minutes before I went out to get the fish did a 100% water change. Filled the tank back up at the right temperature and then left it running whilst I went out. I took a good hour or two to make the fish selection however in the end I walked away with one less fish than I had initially planned.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah. I definitely want the Platys and Gouramis first (especially Platys). I know the obvious thing to do would be reverse it and get the Pandas first coz then I won't be doubling my stock at any point but I so don't want to do that. Plus I think the later I add the Pandas the better due to their sensitivity.

There's also the issue of my Dad getting Peed off at taking me to LFS 25625 weeks in a row! LOl!

 

[waterdrop]

So I guess this is the weekend coming up? (perhaps its in your other threads.. I'll have to look) WD

 

[LondonguyJ]

For some reason I can't mention the word a*q*-advisor on this forum anymore. But I put your stock list in under my own dimensions there and on another similar site

6 panda cory - 28%

3 platy - 13%

2 honey gourami - 11%

6 neon tetra - 10%

62% total

Which would mean the above stock (should you get it) would leave you overstocked by 24%

I'm going to add the dimensions of a juwel 60 L and see what it comes up with. Be right back!


*Edit*

It would appear that doubling it would be wrong

Should you get that stock according to the site I mentioned above you would be 95%

Personally I wouldn't stock more than 70%

Another thing to watch for is the temperature. Your stock would have to be kept between 22-25C with the medium being 24C as platys require a few degrees less heat than most other tropicals. Which leave you with less room for temp fluctuations which to me might be a cause for concern.

Though if you remove the platys your ideal temp is 22-28C

J

 

[waterdrop]

I regard stocking as a really difficult thing (mostly cause I'm not much good at it I don't think ) ..I always get myself in trouble with smarter people when I try to take a stab at it...

The thought process I go through on this one (for better or worse) proceeds as follows: OK, its 60L, so that means 16 US gallons for a USA guy like me and for my usual 1 inch of fully grown fish body per US gallon.. so I've got 16 inches to work with for my initial conservative estimate. Next I look at that list and set aside the little neons for later and just concentrate on the 3 big species, the Pandas, Platies and Honeys. I know all 3 of these can get bigger than an inch but I first think of them as 1 inch and so I've got 9 inches straight off for sure. Then I think, well, Pandas can get to 2 inches for sure and Honeys about the same.. and for that matter I think most of the estimators put platies at 2 inches fully grown also.. so now we've got 22 inches of adult fish body, not including the neons. But if one of the honeys is a female, she might only get to 1.5 inches and any number of these fish may never really reach the 2 inches, especially in a 16G tank (as opposed to if they had a huge 75G tank or something)... so its clear we're playing around with a fully stocked tank, probably going overstocked a bit, especially once we get the neons in there. I guess we're using stock filtration, I forget whether we feel the tank is underfiltered, well filtered or overfiltered (and of course that just one factor and not really as important as gravel-clean-water-changes.)

So, for me, it would be back to a hard call, since I admit that sometimes our inch guideline for the first year gets pretty conservative and in Caz's case I think we have someone who would keep up with her maintenance tasks. The real thing to do would be to keep pretty good logs of how the nitrate levels go in the first 6 months (and of couse whether any ammonia or nitrite showed up on once a week tests or so) to see if the filter and water change maint is keeping up with the first stocking fish load.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

• I'n new to the hobby too, but my advice would be to just get the 3 platies as the first fish. Ask for the shop for ~2m of 6mm airline, a tap valve and an airline holder with a sucker.
• Take the fish home, close the curtains in the tank room and then place the opened transport bag in a bucket (will probably need some support, from say a shoe, to keep the bag upright). Place the suckered line holder ~3" below the water surface and then "clip" one end of the airline in, attaching the tap valve to the other end. Create a vacuum by sucking on the tap valve which has been opened, feeding the water into the transport bag. Once the flow is steady, reduce the flow rate to ~3 drops per second. Then cover the bucket/bag/airline and check on the level of water every 10-15 minutes. Once the bag is ~3/4 full or 1 hour has elapsed, gently pour the transport bag water through a fish net and into your bucket and once all three fish are in the net, gently lower the net into your tank. If possible, try to keep this room dark for at least the next few hours, as this will calm your fish down.
• Don't feed them for the first 24 hours, as the stress of moving will put most fish off eating (my Panda Garras were an exception in so many ways last Saturday, lol). After 24 hours, see what your platties think of literally 1 or 2 flakes of food. If they are eaten, add ~6 more.
• Test the water each day at least once to check that toxic ammonia or nitrite is not present. If either are found, you should do a water change, the size of which will depend upon the concentration of these toxins eg. 0.3mg/l of nitrite should be a minimum of 50% change, if not 66-75% (normalyl tap water will not contain nitrite, so this will dilute the toxins to <0.1 with a 75% change).
• If all goes well with toxin checks and the behaviour/looks of your platties for two weeks, then go and choose your Gouramis.
• Repeat steps 2-4 and if all is well, go and pick your Corys (although you will need to check that Pandas are hardy enough to add after 4 weeks, some Corys are best ledt for at leat 6 weeks)
• A couple of months down the line, you should be good to add your Neon Tetras.

I have to confess that I have speeded up the process of adding fish to my setup. However, my main tank has four times the volume, while my quarantine tank is just a tad smaller than your tank. Things can quickly change in small tanks eg. I have had to do 50-75% water changes every day since adding my 3 2"Redline Torpedo Barbs and 3 3" Panda Garras, as nitrite levels looked close to 0.3mg/l each evening. My Juwel Korrall 60's 280 litre per hour pump with the Compact filter is the limiting factor for my QT, preventing normal stocking for the tank

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The real thing to do would be to keep pretty good logs of how the nitrate levels go in the first 6 months (and of couse whether any ammonia or nitrite showed up on once a week tests or so) to see if the filter and water change maint is keeping up with the first stocking fish load.

~~waterdrop~~

An excellent little tool I came across, which is great for keeping a record of events in my tanks...
http/www.keepitfishy.com/diary.htm

 

[Twinklecaz]

To be honest, I expect my Pandas will end up being Pygmys (been thinking this for a few days now to be honest) and i'll only get the Neons if in a few months I have a very well behaved healthy tank.

I don't want to overstock but to be blunt I've asked the question of my stocking so many times and always got the thumbs up from people. I was originally only going to get one Honey but some people say that although they don't shoal, they'd be happier with a friend. So I changed to 2 females coz I'd hate the thought of that. If my tank ends up just being the 3 Platys, 2 Honeys and 6 Pygmys then that's fine. I'd rather have happy fish.

Nobody the Goat.......wow that sounds like a really complicated way to do things!

 

[BethK]

I don't see an issue with your G's and P's and then a week later, your corys. Although, maybe split the corys up, 3 1 week, 3 the following week, just to be safe.

As long as you stay on top of water changes and keep an eye out on stats, I see no issue. But you may want to rethink the neons,it maybe overload.

 

[LondonguyJ]

I don't want to overstock but to be blunt I've asked the question of my stocking so many times and always got the thumbs up from people. I was originally only going to get one Honey but some people say that although they don't shoal, they'd be happier with a friend. So I changed to 2 females coz I'd hate the thought of that. If my tank ends up just being the 3 Platys, 2 Honeys and 6 Pygmys then that's fine. I'd rather have happy fish.

I figured I'd chime in because having read your cycle (and in doing my own) have come to understand that at times it can be an arduous process just to do things correctly and reach the stage you're at now.

There are a number of fish that I really wanted to keep. Including Platys, Bosami Rainbows, Sword tails, and Angles. But after a ton of reading and scribbling in my notepad my current stock/wish list has no resemblance to the one I started out with. And based my reply on the reading I had done so far. If people gave you the thumbs up with the stock you originally posted then they were doing you a small disservice because that would have left you overstocked. And an overstocked aquarium equates to distressed fish and stressed fish die.

And again, knowing the process you went through just to reach this stage, I figured I'd offer some advice.

Also the medium temp still leaves you with little room to maneuver. A drop or rise of 2C either way from that medium should be will leave you with distressed fish.

But if you're still going to go ahead then I'd recommend this

http/www.aquariumsuperstore.co.uk/Reef-One-Digital-Thermometer.html

As it monitors to the .oC

 

[Twinklecaz]

Sorry Londonguy, for some reason I didn't see your post earlier.

If I got the Platys, Gouramis, Pandas and Neons I'd be stocked to 95%? When I did it on the website that shalt not be named I got 104% but it doesn't take into account that some fish, like Neons, have a very low bioload.

What'll prob do it get Pygmys instead (so instantly halving the impact of my Corys) and then in a few months time look out for some Green Neons rather than the normal ones.

 

[LondonguyJ]

Sorry Londonguy, for some reason I didn't see your post earlier.

If I got the Platys, Gouramis, Pandas and Neons I'd be stocked to 95%? When I did it on the website that shalt not be named I got 104% but it doesn't take into account that some fish, like Neons, have a very low bioload.

What'll prob do it get Pygmys instead (so instantly halving the impact of my Corys) and then in a few months time look out for some Green Neons rather than the normal ones.

I used the measurements of the juwel reckord 600 which is 63L as I didn't know your exact measurements. Can I ask what pygmys you're getting because there are a number of variations under the same name.

As for the site that shall not be named the bioload isn't calculated on your stocking level it's deducted from your filtration capacity.