Hello everyone, I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks and thought it time I jumped in.
I'm currently 2 weeks into a fish-in cycle, not the way I would've chosen to do it knowing what I do now, but that was the shops advice and I listened to them. I asked about a test kit and they said not to bother just yet as they'd test my water for me after two weeks to see if I could add more fish. I went and ordered a test kit anyway and am thankful I did as there's no way I'd have been able to keep the nitrite under control. After reading a few posts on here it seems I'm not the first to have been misled
I have a Roma 90l with ten Cardinals, 1 large bit of bog wood and 7 plants.The Cardinal's are getting on well, I'm keeping the feeding low and doing plenty of water changes to keep the nitrite low, the ammonia has never been high (maybe the API quickstart I got did actually do something) but won't add more fish until I get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.
I'm now at the stage of considering what's next, I really want a dwarf/clown plec but am I right in thinking I should wait a while until the tank's a bit more established so it has stuff to eat like algae (as well as the food I provide obviously)? I like the Chain Loaches also but they might also need to wait for a bit.
So my problem is this, with 11 x Cardinals, 1 x Clown Plec and 4 x Chain Loach it doesn't leave me too much room to stock the rest of the tank. I'd really like a couple of bright colourful fish that will get along with that lot and are about 6cm but they need to be quite hardy as they'll be my 2nd fish. I was thinking Dwarf Gourami but have read they can be a bit prone to sickness. Dwarf Rainbows were another that looked quite cool but are maybe a bit boisterous....
Just looking for suggestions really.
And thanks for reading, I didn't mean it to be that long an introduction
Gav
