what now?

[laurasmithuk]

hi all, on weighing up my options i decided that cycling my tank with fish was the best option for me. tank was set up for a week, and then afer that week i added 6 neon tetras to start off......... water qualities have been good but have had to spend alot of time changing water etc........ how often can i add fish and are there specific types i cant add? i have a 96 litre tank and am hoping to keep 2 dwarf gouramis and different types of tetra

 

[WILDER]

Neon tetra was the worst fish to put in there very sensitive to water quality, and need a mature tank of six months, don' do to many water changes or your tank will never cycle, i would get some platys for cycling abit hardy, what are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph.

 

[laurasmithuk]

my water stats are

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 20

i was advised by lfs neons were ok........... they seem fine. are they not ok then?

 

[laurasmithuk]

ph is 7.4 same as my tap water

 

[WILDER]

Looking at them results the tank is saying cycled, but i can't understand how fast it has cycled, i would leave it another week just to make sure the tank has cycled, and don't do anymore water changes, just to make sure you haven't mixed the results up nitrite 020 instead if nitrate.

 

[laurasmithuk]

nitrIte is def 0 and nitrAte is 20. i added tetra bactozym as reccomended by someone on the forum. is everythig ok then? are my stocking plans all ok?

 

[WILDER]

Just get the two gouramis for now don't want to go mad and send it into a mini cycle, good luck.

 

[laurasmithuk]

are the gouramis ok in the water after 3 weeks? i will test water again before adding any more fish. do u think the bactozyme helped speed it up?

 

[qwikimpss]

I would disagree with the advice of not doing water changes too often or the tank wont cycle. Neons are VERY sensitive and if you care abut them at all you will do water changes as SOON as you see ANY ammonia. A water change wont remove all of the ammonia it will only reduce it so you will still be cycling the tank...it will just cycle slower. If you don't do any water changes then ammonia and NitrItes will soon rech stratospheric levels and quickly kill all of the delicate Neons.

 

[laurasmithuk]

i am gonna moniter water for another week and see how stats go. if stats are ok can i add more fish?

 

[qwikimpss]

If your ammonia and nitrItes are both zero then yes, u can add more fish...but stock slowly so u avoid mini-cycles that would hurt or damage your Neons.