Yippee (im There)

[Zachary1941]

Hi,
Day 47 of my fishless cycle and YES yesterday reached my first doubleZERO... Ammonia read 0 at 12 and 24 hours And Nitrites reads 0 also at 12 and 24 hours... Pale yellow and pale blue... pH 7.6 (have been bumping the ammonia up to 4 ppm every day) Wow feel as if i have won the lottery lol..Did not know i had the patience lol

Right here is my intentions regarding stocking.. Will be doing a qualify period of 4 days Now On Monday evening will do the big water change and turn the heater down (Take readings) Tuesday Morning (Take Readings) and if all is well ..get my first Fish.....These i hope to be Zebra (8) and Harlequins(8) .. But have read different opinions regarding Harequins .. some say fine can put in a fully cycled tank right away . Others No wait until tank has matured approx 6 months.. Which is Right.
Is the fact i will be doing the water change a evening before getting the fish a no no or will it be o.k ?
Regards Zac

 

[AdAndrews]

Hi,
Day 47 of my fishless cycle and YES yesterday reached my first doubleZERO... Ammonia read 0 at 12 and 24 hours And Nitrites reads 0 also at 12 and 24 hours... Pale yellow and pale blue... pH 7.6 (have been bumping the ammonia up to 4 ppm every day) Wow feel as if i have won the lottery lol..Did not know i had the patience lol

Right here is my intentions regarding stocking.. Will be doing a qualify period of 4 days Now On Monday evening will do the big water change and turn the heater down (Take readings) Tuesday Morning (Take Readings) and if all is well ..get my first Fish.....These i hope to be Zebra (8) and Harlequins(8) .. But have read different opinions regarding Harequins .. some say fine can put in a fully cycled tank right away . Others No wait until tank has matured approx 6 months.. Which is Right.
Is the fact i will be doing the water change a evening before getting the fish a no no or will it be o.k ?
Regards Zac

great news! personally i wouldnt put harlequins straight into a new tank, after bad experiences with a batch of these i disregard any comments by anyone else saying they are hardy fish, but the zebra(danios i presume?) should be fine and well up to the job, i always liked doing it in stages, say put 8 fish in, then a month later put some more fish in, then a month more put some more in. this gives the filter a chance to keep up with the ammonia levels, rather than if you had just bunged 20 fish into the tank at once..

fully matured is about six months, so up until then its 1 inch of fish per gallon, but then after around 6 months you can start to stock at about 2 inch of fish per gallon.

good luck mate

 

[waterdrop]

Wow! This just goes to show how people can have different experiences. I put shoals of both zebra danios and rasbora heteromorpha (harlequin) in my tank directly after the big water change after fishless cycling and they both did great. In fact it was my subjective observation that the harlequins were "tough as nails" and over time I decided were really a little tougher than the "famous" zebra danio (which had always been my pick as toughest from back for decades.)

Anyway, no one knows how one particular case will turn out but from my experience I'd say that Zack has got a full 4ppm or so of ammonia dropping both ammonia and nitrites in 12 hours and is even going to do some qualifying days to catch any final blips and my take would be that the filter would easily handle the 16 small fish he's proposed and that both are among the hardiest starters that could be chosen. (Hopefully he'll get a healthy batch and not have them konk off and make me look wrong! )

Anyway, congrats Zack on reaching double-zeros and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Zachary1941]

Thanks Guys,
Yes guess its all down to personal experiences but great to have different points of view . But the final decision is mine ..hopefully the right one ...Will be doing a few more days research in the meantime..Gonna be a long four days . lol Thanks Again Regards Zac

 

[djl08]

I thought you could add to full capacity (1 inch per gallon) straight after the fishless cycle?

Anyhow, let me know how you get on with the harlequins. Im planning on adding a shoal when my cycle is done and dusted.

- Dj -

 

[Zachary1941]

Hi Dj,
My tank is a Jewell 125 so should be able to cope easy with the 16 wee fish i might get (Yes will certainly give you a shout if i get the Harlquins)....All tho the fishless cycle i stayed on the lower side of 5ppm of Ammonia, as did not want to do as i have seen several do ..go to the 8 ppm.(Due to the green shades on the API card)..Doing the same really with the fish staying understocked.. so has to minimise any problems with overstocking..(Which while in fish shops is so tempting to buy more fish).Also it gives me a little more room at a later date when i have gained some experience to add a couple of centre fish that require a little more attention ..Regards Zac

 

[waterdrop]

I thought you could add to full capacity (1 inch per gallon) straight after the fishless cycle?

Anyhow, let me know how you get on with the harlequins. Im planning on adding a shoal when my cycle is done and dusted.

- Dj -

That's correct. Technically you absolutely can stock fully. The 5ppm should always be way more colony capacity than a full stocking, and there -are- sometimes people doing single species tanks and such that actually do this.

But in practice the vast majority of people never fully stock after the fishless cycle. The main reason is the popularity of species like neon/cardinals that do better being introduced into a tank that's matured maybe 6 months beyond the fishless cycle. Sometimes its sensitive species like that and sometimes its just expensive "centerpiece" fish that might not be thought of as sensitive but people would like the extra insurance of an older tank environment to lower the risk of losing the investment. Regardless of now good the fishless cycle is, its hard to beat the maturity of a tank that's around 6 months to a year old that's had good maintenance.

Of course many of the other reasons are just practical or logistical. Often people can't find the fish they want or can't find examples that they deem good enough. Sometimes people are planning vacations and don't want the risk of a heavily stocked new tank until after they get back. Sometimes the reason is inter-species introduction gaps. For instance, you might want to give your neons/cardinals some time to mature prior to introducing baby angelfish so that the babies will better see the neons/cards as bigger, older tank inhabitants and grow up thinking of them that way rather than as food.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[djl08]

Interesting you mention 'centrepiece' fish, i was having a think of what mine would be. What would you regard as a centrepiece fish, what would be suitable for a 160L?

- Dj -

 

[waterdrop]

Well, first off, tanks certainly don't have to have them. Many beautiful planted tanks are very peaceful looking because only shoals of small fish drift through the plants and there are no "centerpiece fish" to distract you from the overall aquascape!

Also, some people like crowded tanks or lots of big fish and so the -whole- tank looks like centerpiece fish I'd say, thoroughly distracting you to some extent! That look can be pretty interesting too.

But what I was referring to is seen in many typical community tanks where there are various bottom dwellers, various shoals of smaller fish and perhaps just a few big attention-getting fish. Angels or some other pairs of big cichlids would be typical examples.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[djl08]

Ah i see, well i intent on adding a nice pair of angels to my tank, so i guess they would be my centerpiece. I'll be sure to add them as babies and also after i have added my tetras.

- Dj -