What To Add First

[Cossie1111]

20gal 2.5ft tank.

6 bronze corydoras
12 harlequins
2 platies

What should I add first, at what interval (like every week or whatever) and how many at once (obviously im not going to be putting all 12 fish at the same time!)

Thanks in advance.

 

[CezzaXV]

How are you cycling your tank? That's the most important thing that will allow us to answer your question.

 

[Cossie1111]

Tanks been going by itself for months now just with driftwood, as such the water is brown. Ug filter plus a box filter atm, I will remove the ug filter and box filter before I get fish and use a canister filter, ill do a 75% water change and add some aged water and some cycle. And maybe some ammonia. This will all be happining over the next couple of weeks.

 

[CezzaXV]

Wait wait wait! You mean to say that your tank has been just sitting there for months with nothing in it?

I know you dont want to hear this, but I'm sorry to say that you're a long way from getting fish yet. If you tank has been sat there doing nothing then it's nowhere near ready for fish, despite what people at the fish shop may have told you. In fact, the time it's been sat there doing whatever it's doing has been wasted, I'm afraid.

You need to CYCLE your tank, which means either doing a fishless cycle by adding controlled ammonia and testing your water every day until it's ready for fish (it will take months, trust me), or you can fish-in cycle which means you get fish but you're going to have to do massive daily water changes for months and your fish may die/have their lives drastically shortened. Basically you have a choice between the boring option or the hard work option, but the upside of the boring option is that you're not risking the health of any fish and at the end you'll be able to add all your fish at once. Those cycling products do little to nothing - they certainly won't make your tank ready for fish.

Just throwing some fish in now as it is, even with aged water, will do no good. All you'll end up with is dead fish from ammonia poisoning.

The brownness in the water is probably just tannins from the wood, nothing to worry about really, it's just unsightly.

Have a look through the beginner's resource centre and come back and ask any questions you may have.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hi Cossie,

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, Cezza is correct. Having the filter running and the heater on does nothing to prepare the tank for fish. All it does is confirm that those parts are working and the tank is leak free. The maturing process of a tank, is really more about the filter and the bacteria that process the wastes that your fish produce. The fish continually will produce ammonia and this is excreted primarily through their gills, in addition to their poo. This ammonia is actually toxic to the fish, just as carbon dioxide produced by humans is toxic to us.

The production of ammonia by fish can be simulated by adding pure ammonia to your tank (perfume and surfactant free). This is known as a fishless cycle. The bacteria that process ammonia into nitrite come along and produce a secondary toxin. The nitrite then will be processed by another bacteria into nitrate, which is FAR less toxic. This is known as the nitrogen cycle, as you start with NH3 (ammonia) then process to NO2 (nitrite) processed to NO3 (nitrate). Nothing can really remove all the nitrates other than you, and so you are required to do maintenance water changes on a regular basis. I do 30% weekly.


The other option would be a fish-in cycle, which is much more difficult and needs to be VERY closely monitored. Both are effective. Generally the use of "instant" cycle products isn't considered to be effective enough to allow you the luxury of just banging your fish in to the tank quickly.



The fishless cycle could take as little as 4 weeks or as long as 10+. But, at the end, you'd be able to add ALL your fish at once, although I've never trusted that and would never go higher than half the stocking at once. The fish in cycle will require countless water changes, stress for you and your fish and you probably won't reach your total stocking levels for 4-6 months. Please do read the link Cezza offered for the beginner's resource center. It is full of LOTS of information. It will probably cause information overload. Take it slow. Doing a fishless cycle will allow you to read through all the different resources and learn a great deal stress free. Doing a fish in cycle will get you to the same end, but it will likely be far more stressful in the long run.



As far as your stocking list goes, very nice. Some of my favorites. Harlequins are very hardy little fish, as are platies. And personally I just love cories. Depending which method you go with to cycle your tank, what the answer to your question is. Personally, I'd fishless cycle. Then I'd add the whole shoal of harlequins first. Then give it about a week or two to settle in and ensure that your filter is handling everything well. Then, I'd add the platies. Finally, I'd add the cories last. (The cories are the most sensitive of your list.)


That's a slightly heavy stocking load for a new aquarist. Just keep an eye on your water parameters when you reach max load and be prepared to do larger or more frequent or both water changes to keep things all in check. Best wishes with it all.

 

[Cossie1111]

Thanks, I read through that fishless cycling article.

After some ringing around and research. I learned that pure ammonia is ridiculously hard to find here in australia due to bomb control laws or whatever.

So now ill just use cycle and use a testing kit to determine if levels are safe. When ammonia ect is at a safe level for a few weeks ill add fish slowly.

Also may do partial water changes everyday.

Then 6 harlequins, ect

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You won't have any ammonia until you do have fish in the tank producing it. I'd recommend starting with no more than 4 rasboras, or the two platies. Add the fish and test daily for ammonia and nitrite. If either level is anything but zero, you will need to do a partial water change. Larger ones are actually better than small ones.


The closer the ammonia is to zero, the healthier for your fish. So, let's say that the levels one day test at 0.50ppm. If you do a 50% water change, that will bring the level down to 0.25ppm. But, that's not good either. So, you'd have to do another 50% change, and that would lower the level to 0.125ppm. If you did a 3rd 50% change, then you'd bring the level down to 0.06ppm. That is changing 150% of the tank volume. Now, on the other hand, if you do a 90% water change (or even more, just enough for the fish to swim upright) then the level would be down to 0.05ppm without having to go through the whole process multiple times. Be sure to refill with temp matched, dechlorinated water.


In the beginner's resource center there is a link to a fish-in cycle as well. Have a read through that. There is nothing inherently wrong with a fish in cycle, but it will be more stressful and you will need to do LOTS of water changes. They will start out daily, and then eventually they will become less frequent. When you go a full week without needing to do a change, then you can add a few more fish and the cycle will continue. Usually the time for the first stocking is the hardest. You learn the most and make the most mistakes. The later additions will cause minimal disruption to your bacteria, as long as you keep the new additions to a small portion of the total stock. You want to add no more than 50% of the current level and you should see no spike in ammonia or nitrite with an addition.



Of course, even better would be getting a bit of used filter media from someone, maybe even your LFS, and you can drastically cut down the amount of water changes and ammonia that will be there for your fish. Anything in the filter will be home to some of these bacteria. Filter floss, a sponge, ceramics, anything like that that you can get your hands on will GREATLY help the entire process for you. Ask a few LFS and see if you can get some. Add that to your filter anyway that you can fit it in without greatly restricting water flow and you will be seeding your filter with the bacteria and cut weeks off the entire process. if you get a big enough donation, you can actually bypass the entire cycling process.

 

[Cossie1111]

Thanks alot man

 

[Dieses Madchen]

You don't necessarily have to use pure ammonia. You could use fish food or raw shrimp. Something that will put ammonia into the tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Its hard to know the dose using that method, and more than likely he'll end up with far too much ammonia in the tank and can start to encourage the wrong nitrifying bacteria. I think a fishless cycle is always preferred, but until we can figure out a pure ammonia product in Australia, I can understand going the fish-in cycle route. Of course, we need to be up front about the amount of work that will need to go in to it, but it is a very viable method.

 

[CezzaXV]

Have you tried shopping online? I ended up buying my ammonia online to avoid the hassle of driving around trying to find it.

Eagle is right - your levels will be fine and always will be fine because there's nothing in the tank to make them not be fine. The idea is to make them fine because you've got bacteria in your filter keeping them fine. If you can't find ammonia then you'll have to fish-in cycle, but be aware that it's hard work with lots of water changes.