What Fish Should I Add After My Cycle

[mwood2]

Ok so my cycle seems to be in its second stage seeing as ammonia is doing much better and Nitrite is spiking but is slowly being worked on. But what else can i put into my tank with my Molly fish in the next week or 2 when my tank becomes cycled? Since its a 5 gallon I know much much else can fit and Im worried about a African dwarf frog since its sensitve to Ammonia/Nitrite and I use gravel and they have a tendency to accidentally swallow it (so I hear). The tank is the Aqua tech Hex 5 (google if your curious), Its about 18 inch high and the filter is covered so nothing can really get in it. Also got myself an Air tube

Suggestions?


Oh and lastly, anyone got suggestions for a quiet air pump? Mines has a pretty loud hum on it and its getting annoying (its in my room)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, what you have to remember is cycling is a supply and demand thing. we consider that the tank is cycled when the ratre of ammonoa consumption is equalt to the rate of ammonia production.

now these numbers are made up, but just to give you an idea of how it works. say your 1 molly produces 2ppm of ammonia a day, in a week or so it looks like you'll be cycled because you'll have enough bacteria to consume those 2ppm of ammonia. Now if as soon as it's cycled you go and add another similar sized fish then you'll have production of 4ppm of ammonia but only enough bacteria to consume 2ppm, so you'd basically be back to square one and you'd be going through the whole cycling process again with the daily water changes etc.

So you need to make sure you don't put too many new fish in and make sure you dont overload the filter.

In a nice mature tank you can add extra fish without too much problem, because the bacteria colony is so stable it can double in 24hrs so at worst you get a mini cycle. But in a newly cycled tank they can't do this so you end up back to square one.

So basically the longer you leave it before adding more fish the less chance there is of a mini cycle, also if you're considering something sensitive like the ADF's you definately need to wait at least a month or so before adding them.

My suggestion would be once the tank is cycled just give it some time to settle, don't rush out to buy fish straight away or you may find yourself in some hot water.

However once those few months are up I think an ADF would be a really nice choice for that tank