Ready For Fish?

[scooterchick]

I set up a 17 gallon tank about 3 weeks ago in preparation to move my mollies into a tank of their own. I've since been advised to separate my guppies (which are in a different tank) from a rainbow shark, so about 6 guppies and 6 mollies will be going into the 17 gallon. Think this is about right?

So the tank was set up with water taken from another tank and I've been adding some food along the way. Unfortunately I wasn't a member then so have only now read the 'fishless cycle' pinned thread.

I've just tested the water (don't have nitrite testing kit) and the results are as follows:

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm
PH - 8

It's previously used filter (fluval 3) but not used for a long time so I don't think it'll have any bacteria on it. Would nitrates be present without nitrites?

Does it sound like the tank is ready for fish?

 

[piratedninja]

its pretty much impossible to tell without a nitrite reading
adding just food into the tank will take much longer for it to cycle

its better to add a little bit of household ammonia to the tank and keep monitoring ammonia and nitrites

 

[scooterchick]

its pretty much impossible to tell without a nitrite reading
adding just food into the tank will take much longer for it to cycle

its better to add a little bit of household ammonia to the tank and keep monitoring ammonia and nitrites

Thanks pirate, better get the nitrite kit!! As I'm testing late in the cycle, can I assume that if the nitrite level is 0ppm the tank is ready?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

pretty much

if you add some ammonia source and 12 hrs later ammonia and nitrite are both 0 then your good to go

also test the nitrate content of your tap water, then you can tell if the nitrate in your tank was already there from the start or has been produced by bacteria processing ammonia

 

[scooterchick]

pretty much

if you add some ammonia source and 12 hrs later ammonia and nitrite are both 0 then your good to go

also test the nitrate content of your tap water, then you can tell if the nitrate in your tank was already there from the start or has been produced by bacteria processing ammonia

Oh good idea! Incidentally I've tested the PH of my tap water which is 7. Both my running tanks have PH's of 7.5 and the fishless tank has a PH of 8, any idea what would be pushing that up? I'm not overly concerned as Mollies like a higher PH anyway but curious as to why?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

could be any number of things tbh

what decor/ornaments/substrate/filte media etc do you have

 

[scooterchick]

could be any number of things tbh

what decor/ornaments/substrate/filte media etc do you have

Hi miss wiggle,

Just tested my tap water for nitrates, 0ppm. So that's good! BUT the water in the tank came out another tank so I guess that could be why it's showing 20ppm for nitrates. Better get the nitrite testing kit. Don't want to shock my mollies.

When moving fish from one tank to another, would you suggest putting them in a bucket first and mixing the water from the old tank and their new one, or just throwin them straight in? In a manner of speaking of course!!