New To Tropical Fish- Looking For Reassurance!

In case you didn't know, you are doing a fish-in cycle.  There is a post in the filtration and cycling section that gives you details (click here).

I think you may have read it, or something similar, because, so far, you seem to be on the right track.  I would have started with fewer fish of a different species but...

In summary, whenever the ammonia or nitrite rises above 0.25, you should do sufficient water changes to bring them below 0.25.  I would suggest a larger change, 15 litres is about 1 standard bucketful!

You should see some nitrite about day 12-14.

Continual water changes may slow the cycle compared to a fishless cycle, but you can't let the ammonia or nitrites rise because it's harmful to your fish.

Thanks both,

We went with the tetras on the advice of the LFS and they were sold in groups of 6, number 7 was a surprise!

Thinking of some different tetras next and guppies I know that the tank needs to cycle before any more are added, and to add slowly

Will let you know how i get on and attach some photos 

I'd keep off the guppies. I've had a fair few guppies turn up their little fishy toes 'cos they're such a weak fish due to so much in-breeding.

As you have tetras swimming in the mid regions of your tank, you might want to thing about a shoal of one of the dwarf cory catfish (link) which will snuffle around your substrate and rocks/decorations/plants or whatever you have at the bottom of the tank. Just a thought.

It depends if you're trying to upload directly, or you're uploading to a hosting site like photobucket or picasa etc. I use picasa and then link to the photo using the [img] tags. Those who upload directly have a bit size limit and I'm not sure what that is - you might well be exceeding it.

Hello Lucy,

Welcome to the fishy forum!  You've made a really good move by joining, everyone on here is so friendly and helpful.  I too, was new to fishkeeping and have had my  fish for just over a month now after doing a fishless cycle with my tank.  The advice and support I got, especially from Colin and Sue, has been much appreciated. Even questions that must to them, have been really stupid, were answered with patience and obviously huge experience.  I would listen to them over any fish shop, if I were you.
Sadly, since getting my fish, 2 have died.  One, a little otocinclus, which both Colin and Sue reassured me, have a bit of a reputation for not making it past the first month.  I still have two and I am hoping that they remain ok.  The other was one of my guppies, I had five to start with.  As Colin said, they too, seem to pop off for no reason.  It was the one that my bully boy fish harassed constantly so I don't know if the stress of that contributed to him giving up, but it was very upsetting, especially when you think that everything is going well with your tank.  Still, (fingers crossed everyone else seems to be doing well, including the fry that my little platys surprised me with last week
I am on countdown until I can get my little panda corys to complete my fishy neighbourhood

I wish you well with your tank, and as Colin said, we all love piccies of other folks set-ups!

Resa
 

You have only a few fish so the amount of ammonia they make will only be small. Doing the water changes as you are might well be enough to keep on top of the ammonia. Keep on doing them while there is ammonia in the tank, and also keep checking for nitrite. 1ppm ammonia makes 2.7ppm nitrite so if/when you do get nitrite it'll go up quite fast.
It is within the bounds of possibilty for a fish-in cycle not to see nitrite. With so few fish and all the water changes it is theoretically possible to keep the nitrite level so low that you don't notice it. But it is also likely that you haven't started to make any yet and it's the water changes that are keeping the ammonia low rather than bacterial growth. If you reach the stage of not needing to do water changes because ammonia stays at zero, and you still don't see any nitrite, then you can assume you are cycled. If this does happen, check your nitrate (and if it's a liquid reagent one, shake the one bottle at least as much as the instructions say to) and see if that increases over a few days.


I've read numerous reports from people using bottled bacteria of various makes. Unfortunately, I've never read of anyone having success with Nutrafin Cycle. You could always be the first!

Be guided by your ammonia readings. If if it still low tomorrow you could increase the food to 2 flakes and see what happens. It is quite hard to starve fish - you can leave them without food for about 10 days when you are on holiday!

Thanks Colin

Will move clip on the next water change, didn't think about it melting!  I'll get somemore plants in the week, is it advisable to leave them in a bucket of tank water before adding them to a tank?  Will also get some more stones to make another little cave, they enjoy swimming in and out of the one already there.  At night they all snuggle in between the plant leaves like they are in bunk beds!

Must say this is a very friendly site, have looked at a few others and can't say the same about them, some people come across very rude!


Thanks again. Lucy

Good to see another Fluval Edge owner on here! I've got the smaller one with a tank of endlers in. In terms of feeding it sounds about right to me - I feed my endlers one flake a day (there was 7 of them, I just added an extra one) and it seems enough to me! I think it's a case of trial and error with food.

Good luck with your cycle! Sounds like you're on track with things at the minute

If your ammonia and nitrite are staying at zero without needing to do water changes, you can increase the amount you feed slightly - if you keep up with the testing you'll quickly spot anything wrong.



Going back to the beginning of the thread, you first posted on Wed, 3 April saying you got the fish on Mon (1 April, I assume). It is almost unheard of for a cycle to be complete in just a week, even using bottled bacteria that is known to work. It could be that the amount of food you are giving the fish is so small that the fish are only producing a tiny amount of ammonia. Increasing the amount of food should tell you if you are cycled or not.
To give you some idea, I'm currently doing a fishless cycle without using any bottled bacteria (just to see what happens as I've never done one before). I am on day 29 today. From day 1 to day 12, the ammonia level stayed constant, then it fell slightly and the next day (day 14 which was 13 days after starting, I really should have called the day I set it up day 0 not day 1!) it fell to zero. I have had a nitrite reading since then and it is showing no sign of dropping yet. I realise that a fishless cycle is different from a fish-in as with the latter you have to keep the ammonia level low for the sake of the fish, but it does give some idea of timescales.