Adding the first fish

[luvmyfish]

Just a question... We have had our tank up and running for about 6 days now, when can we add our first starter fish. The ones that we won't mind if they die?

 

[William]

You can add your first fish now, try this article: http/faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html about cycling. I personally would recommend 4-6 zebra danios for a 20 gallon tank. I hope they're not going to die now! They are very tough and hardy fish to cycle the tank with, with them in it it will take 2-6 weeks. To speed it up you already have a tank? Well once your fish are added squeeze a bit of the filter sponge from your old tank into the new tank - this will bring over some good bacteria also a bit of gravel would be good to further increase the amount of bacteria - this will all reduce the cycling time and may make it as little as 2 weeks. I suggest you buy the following test kits: Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAte. Together they should come to under $10/£10. Do a water test with all of them on your 2nd day with fish in the tank and post the results here for us to analyse The graph on the link I gave you gives a good description of what to expect. When the testing of the water hits 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite you are now ready to add some cichlids I'll let cichlidmaster take over from here

 

[luvmyfish]

Ok now please forgive me for my stupidity. I am not quite sure on the cycling of the water. I bought the tank which included stress zyme and stress coat. Is that what I need to cycle. Or should I add a couple small fish and see how they do. If they die I guess we have some problems. Please help

 

[StiX]

A fishless cycle is much kinder to the fish! , it just takes abit longer, but its up to you! Have a read of will;s link tho, u should be able to understand the basics of cycleing then (it really is worth reading!)

 

[Great Lakes]

Lmf, the stress zyme and stress coat are additives designed to keep your fish happy and healthy in a environment such as an uncycled tank. They do nothing to speed up the process. You can go ahead and add fish as Will suggested, they should do fine. But be patient, and you will have fewer problems later....

 

[slt]

i cycled my tank with platies, these are a hardy fish to use for cycling,
i used 5, they all survived , so when the tank had gone through the cycle
i returned them to my lfs and exchanged them for fish foods, as i did'nt
want to keep platies,

 

[William]

Luvmyfish - For the water to cycle you need to have bacteria in the filter (bacteria convert Ammonia (fish waste) which is highly toxic into NitrIte (also highly toxic!) then another lot of bacteria convert NitrIte into nitrAte (untoxic (well slightly but only in really high concentrations which is why you do water changes))which is why there are two stages of cycling - one for the ammonia converting bacteria to build up and one for the nitrite converting bacteria to build up.

These bacteria will be there naturally in very small numbers, as soon as you add your fish you will start to get fish poop - Ammonia! The bacteria numbers will begin to build up and the cycle will have started then you just have to wait for the bacteria to build up enough that they convert all the ammonia and future ammonia into nitrIte thats why you need the test kit to see how the cycles progressing The same happens with the bacteria which converts nitrIte to nitrAte and only when both the ammonia levels and the nitrITe levels are 0 is it safe for you to add more fish - the tank is said to be cycled now you can add now the fish that you really want