Cycling on it's way

[.:Nikki:.]

THanks to everyone how had replyed to my other post
I'm on my 6th day of cycling and things are going pretty well. The tank water is still a bit cloudy but I should go away soon, I hope. Just today I bought some carbon, lots of plants and a large piece of bogwood. I put the carbon into my filter, planted the plants into the gravel and put in the bogwood (only after rinsing it).
I got my water tested and it seemed that the ammonia levels where high, what should I do about that?
I have also decided on what fish I wanted I hope these are ok...

#3 Platy
#7 Rummy-Nose Tetra
#2 Gold Gourami
#3 Albino Cory
#2 Oto

 

[skimpy]

Are you doing a fishless cycle or are you cycling with fish??

If its fishless the ammonia is no problem, it you are cycling with fish, then you will need to do water changes to lower the ammonia, it is very toxic to fish.

I can not comment on the other fish very much but I do recommend getting oto's until after you have fully cycled your tank. I have read that they do not like cycling very much.

Certainly either way do not add any fish when you have high ammonia or nitrite levels and do water changes to reduce level if you have fish in you tank.

 

[.:Nikki:.]

I'm doing a fishless cycle I don't want to play around with the fishes lives if I'm doing a fish cycle.
Someone told me that about the otos, how you should only add them to your tank if it is fully mature. I'm going to do that then, thanks skimpy.
Anybody else have any comments on my fish?

 

[clutterydrawer]

How big is the tank?

For teh most part those fish sound compatible. However you might run into problems with the gold gouramis. They can be territorial and aggressive even to other fishes but especially with each other, and if you are really set on having them, I'd recommend only getting one. Here is a recent thread about agressive gold gouramis:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...2108&hl=gourami

This is about a blue gourami but they're the same species:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=50938&hl=

 

[David]

Don't add the rummy-noses right away, they are extremely sensitive. They are good water quality indicators, however, as when somethign goes wrong, they are the first to show signs of it, usually early enough so that you can correct the problem. Definitely don't add them until the tank has been running with fish for several weeks.