Tank Cycled Finally! Stocking Help Please:p

[discodave]

hey guys after at least 6 weeks of meditating to control my impatience my tank is finally ready! All i have to do now is the 75-90% water change to remove the nitrates and buy them!

I'll be buying the fish in the morning so when should i do the water change? The ph has went down slightly but this will be rectified by the water change.

I have a list of fish which i intend to purchase, could you help me answer the question of whether they are compatible?

3 Otto
3 Endler
1 Betta
2 rams
1 adf(having my doubts as i don't think glasgow fish shops stock them

Temperature ranging between 24-30C (from what i've scribbled down lol)

One more question, can i add all the fish at once like the cycling thread says?


Thanks a lot for you help again
Dave

 

[GoldLenny]

The size of your tank will determine what kind and how many fish you can have. What size is it?

Keep feeding ammonia to the tank until you are ready to add fish. Do you have a plastic holding tub or 5G bucket you can use as a temporary place for your new fish? If so, fill the bucket/tub 1/2 way with water now to allow it to stabilize and outgas properly. Dechlor it, of course. Have the water tested at the fish store to find out what the pH, temperature, etc., is. Then bring your fish home, float acclimate them if your water is nearly identical to the pH they came. If your pH is much lower, you should slowly acclimate them before releasing them into the 5G bucket. While they are acclimating to your water in the 5G, you can do the 90% water change on the main tank, test it after to make sure water parameters are similar. If nearly identical, net them and move them from the 5G to your main tank.

If your water chemistry is a lot different than the pet store water, you should just pour the fish and the water they came from into the 5G bucket/tub and then slowly drip acclimate them to your water before netting them into your main tank.

If you fishless cycled using 4-5ppm of ammonia and your fishless cycling was reducing that to 0.0ppm ammonia, 0.0ppm nitrites in 12 hours... then you have a nice healthy N-bacteria colony in your filter and you can add all of the fish at once... as long as you are not overstocking the tank from the start.

 

[discodave]

oops i forgot to add that! it's a 10g tank and i used the add and wait method.

The biggest thing i have is a 10Litre bucket. The Tap water Ph where i live is around 7-7.5 (can't remember the last time i checked)

Cheers for the advice Goldlenny

As for the fish are they compatible?

 

[loachman]

yes, you could add all the fish at once. (I should be more specific and say you can all the appropriate fish at once following a proper fishless cycle)

I would not add a betta to the mix. Bettas are notoriosly territorial and tend to do very poorly with other long finned fish (i.e. guppies/endlers).

I don't know enough about rams to comment on them.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i wouldn't put two rams into a 10g, bit small IMO.

also there's too many fish in that list, I would go with the following and that makes you fully stocked.

3 Otto - 6"
3 Endler - 3"
1 adf - 1"

when you want to get your fish do your big 90% water change, fill the tank back up. go out and buy the fish and the tank temp should be right again by the time you get home so you can acclimitise the fish straight away

 

[vinylman]

Otos should only really be added to a mature tank - not the same as a cycled tank. Leave it a good 6-8 weeks.

 

[stryper]

I'd scrap the rams as these really should be kept in soft water for best results. They may survive but not really do well plus open to disease white spot and the like. Plus as some one else pointed out a bit small for two rams to share.

 

[drobbyb]

Old thread from 2007...