Finally, Im Cycled...

[fUbAr]

After a painful 9 week cycling period, today my ammonia and nitrite levels were at 0. Now for the question...

Im not going to be able to get to the fish store until next week as I'm out of the country, so can I just continue adding 4ppm of ammonia until then? Then simply do the large water change and buy my fish?

Oh, and is it ok to add all of my fish in one go? I guess it is because only adding a few fish wont produce enough ammonia to keep the cycle going?

Thanks for any replies...

 

[Pheonix]

if your tank has cycled then you will be fine fubar, only add a little ammonia to keep the bacteria alive until you come back, but what ever you do dont buy all your fish in one go!!! this will cause a massive crash as your tank will not be prepared for the large bioload you will be putting in it!!!!

remember nothing good ever happens quickly in a fish tank only bad things!!

stock your tank slowly and your have far better results

HTH
Andy

 

[fUbAr]

ok, well i can get someone to add 2ml of ammonia a day while im gone...

if i start off by adding 6 black neons, will that be a good start? my concern was that they wont produce enough ammonia to keep the filter bacteria alive?

Fish i'm putting in the tank:

6x Black Neons
4x Julli Corys
4x Black Mollys

 

[Pheonix]

id actually go with the mollies first, 1, they are much more hardy than neons who require much more stable conditions and are not good for a newly cycled tank.

dont worry about your bacteria once you have some fish in there it will be fine adding the fish slowly allows more bacteria to build up to cope with the extra fish this is why it pays to add them slowly

in my opionion id add the mollies first then the corys then if all are happy the neons last obvioulsy the choice is your though

HTH
Andy

 

[voo]

The mollies require brackish water, adding salt, where as the neons and cory's dont. I'd forget the mollies if i were you and go for something different, platties perhaps? They're quite similar and hardy too, great as a first fish. Just be warned they breed a lot, but then so do mollies

 

[dwarfgourami]

id actually go with the mollies first, 1, they are much more hardy than neons who require much more stable conditions and are not good for a newly cycled tank.

dont worry about your bacteria once you have some fish in there it will be fine adding the fish slowly allows more bacteria to build up to cope with the extra fish this is why it pays to add them slowly

in my opionion id add the mollies first then the corys then if all are happy the neons last obvioulsy the choice is your though

HTH
Andy

But Andy, this tank has done a fishless cycle, so an addition of most fish should not cause a massive crash. The whole point of the fishless cycle is that you build up a colony of bacteria large enough to deal with a whole tankload.

This is what I would do:
keep adding ammonia until the day before you are ready to go shopping
then do the big water change on the morning of the day
add platies (instead of mollies) and corys
let the tank settle for 6 months, then add black neons

 

[scubadoo]

But Andy, this tank has done a fishless cycle, so an addition of most fish should not cause a massive crash. The whole point of the fishless cycle is that you build up a colony of bacteria large enough to deal with a whole tankload.

This is what I would do:
keep adding ammonia until the day before you are ready to go shopping
then do the big water change on the morning of the day
add platies (instead of mollies) and corys
let the tank settle for 6 months, then add black neons

Absolutely correct DG.
After the successful completion of a fishless cycle you should have more than enough bacteria to fully stock the tank, but a little caution is no bad thing.

I would keep adding the ammonia at 4-5ppm level to maintain a full bacterial population - your bacteria should be processing the ammonia and nitrite levels to 0 in under 12 hours.
Also - check that your tank temperature is at the correct temp. for your fish. I had been setting my temp. high to help with the bacteria growth during my fishless cycle, but after reducing the temp to accommodate fish, there was a drop off in the bacterial colony.

 

[fUbAr]

6 Months for the neons? that seems ages!

ok, so i'll rethink the mollies, i only liked them because they are black.

So, confilicting views on when to add the fish... all in 1 go as per the fishless cycling thread, or slowly each week?

thanks for the informative advice though, im a novice and this is great value to me.

 

[Pheonix]

i agree with you both DG and SD i just like to go on the cautious side even when i do a fishless cycle i still always stock slowly, just for fault tollerance rather than anything else, if you stick one breed in and you dont have a problem lovely but if you do you know exactly who the problems are, if they all go in, in one go its harder to isolate the cause

id wait at least that long with the neons to! for some reason they are such a fussy fish lol!!

the black mollies although brackish cant be weined of the salt, most mollies like a bit of salt so all have some brackish in them but do fine without it. ive kept blacks in a completely salt free environment and they have still done really well

just more input and experiences for ya

edit : spelling

 

[fUbAr]

fantastic, many thanks!

are glowlight tetra hardier than neons then? these are the 2 ive been considering?

 

[diademhill]

fantastic, many thanks!

are glowlight tetra hardier than neons then? these are the 2 ive been considering?

The black neons and glowlights are equally hardy IME - much hardier than neons. Either should be ok in a cycled tank but mollies need very different water parameters.

Have you seen black guppies?

 

[fUbAr]

The black neons and glowlights are equally hardy IME - much hardier than neons. Either should be ok in a cycled tank but mollies need very different water parameters.

Have you seen black guppies?

i'll look into the black guppies, thanks!