not crazy at all adding fish in one shot.
all going in tank at one time mean they adjust together alot quicker. We also cycled the tank with a huge ammonium load.
in total 8 days. but only 7 days in tank.
day 1.
tanks being delivered next day at lunch.
weve already got all the gravel and filter media.
all washed and cleaned
about 40kg of gravel in total.
one air pump with 8 airstones, just swall ones cost next to nothing. put one in each bucket.
we share the gravel around in 7 different buckets
then we share the filter foam, and noodes around betweent the 8 buckets.
we then put in a small handfull off my gravel into each bucket and add the water i drained out of my tank (for a water change to each of his buckets) also filter squeezings.
added a few drops of ammonium. Cant remember how much. it was around 7 grops a gallon.
day 2.
tank arrived.
we cleaned it all up.
i spread a very little amount of my gravel about 2 handfulls around bottom of the tank.
we removed the filter media from the buckets and put into the filter then tipped the buckets with gravel and water into tank.
put in heater. landscaped that type of thing. filled with dechloranated tank water.
switched on filter and heater and day 2 finished. put in enough ammonium to get a spike to about 7-8
day 3 24hrs latter.
added some more filter squeezings from my tank and added same amount of ammonium.
day 4. 24hrs latter.
test ammonia and nitite.
nitrite spike( yes)
add half amount of ammonium.
add in plants. Plants bring alot of good bacteria and also help to get rid off ammonia and nitirite.
day 5 24hrs
added same amount of ammonium again.
day 6 24hrs
tested ammonia and nitrite.
added same amount again.
day 7 24hrs
tested ammonia and nitirite
both 0
tested again a few hors later to make sure and all zero added same about of ammonium.
we did this for another 4 days.
testing every day.
did a 75% water change to get ridd of nitate.
added full fish load.
a week later no fish dead. no ammonia no nitrite
.