WOO HOO done at last

[catt410]

It's been a little while since I posted. I started this journey I think in March 135 gl. I had many water problems with a fishless cycle. After 7 or 8 weeks I thought I was done and jump the gun and bought fish, 7 Danios & 12 cory cats. Right away the water went wacko. At one point I was doing 5 water changes a day and nothing help. Sad to say i did loose 2 Danios, I think one was the LFS fault. So after all this time my tank has been looking good for the last 2 weeks.

Currently in my tank

5 Danios

12 cory cats I love these little guys they are fun to watch

5 Rainbows added last weekend

I was told by the LFS guy that we had hard water and to be safe I should only add Mollies and Platies to this combo. Any thoughts? before I go buy mollies and platies...


Thanks all

Catt

[rwilliams254]

Congrats on getting it up and running.

Out of couriosity, do you think adding 19 fish to your tank (which was just stablized) at once could have caused the fluxuations?

Any picts of the tank?

[catt410]

To be honest i don't think it was cycled all the way. That could have been the reason but all seems to be well now......

[jpappy789]

start postin some pics!

[davexstumpe]

i'd say you could pretty much try adding anything you want, just make sure to acclimate them slowly. fish can adapt. only thing you would need specific water softness or hardness for would be for breeding

[ImAGMan]

since rwillaims went about it in a nice way I'll go straight out and tell you so you don't do it again and risk loosing fish. When adding fish add a few at a time, The amount of fish you added was way too much and thus caused some heavy water problems. So in the future plan out what u want then get maybe 1/3 of them at a time. over a time span of a few weeks.

Im glad to see your fish are doing well now and you only lost those two, sucks but it could of been worse.

[jm1212]

platies are awesome fish. if you like them, go ahead and get a couple.

there are plenty of other fish that would do fine in yoru tank. in fact, if they arent wild or you intend to breed them, most fish shouldnt have a problem adapting to your water. what is your pH?

[catt410]

I think I really need to add some color. The platies and mollies can give me lots of color. I was going to add Discuss or Angels but the LFS guy said they wouldn't do well in our water.

I will say in my defence I added the 19 fish thinking I was cycled. I was under the impression that one of the reason you do a fishless cycle is stock all at once. Maybe it was overkill, but I did think I was going slow for the size of my tank. Anywho now I am back on track and will add slowly.


Ph 7.6
High Range PH 7.4

[Dwarf Puffers]

The reason not to add fish all at once is because it takes the bacteria by surprise, especially if they're newly formed. If you cycled a tank with 10 danios (I'm completely against fish cycling btw), you would be safe adding fish that would equal their waste production and a little more. If you fishless cycle, you should only add 2-3 fish at a time, unless you have say 4 fish and put them in other tanks, you'd be safe adding 6-7 fish with similar bio loads.

I'd say unless the fish need really, REALLY soft water (rams or discus), you'd be fine with most fish. I'd say get the school of danios to 10 or 12, they really do well with lots of friends. Also, I'd say make it 8 rainbows, and then get 10 small tetras to complement the Danios (Neons, Cardinals, black neons, Lemons, etc.).

Have you considered Honey Gouramis? Not the dwarf kind, but the true honeys. If so, I'd strongly advise you to get some, they're the best dicision you'll ever make if you're looking for personality, cuteness, and color (although the females can be less colorful than males). Females have a black stripe from their head to their tail and are grayish when at the LFS (stressful conditions, usually) and any of them that have black throats are males.

[severum mama]

Discus don't need really really soft water. I keep mine in tap water and our pH is around 8.0. They do just fine. However, I would not recommend them for your tank. They need to be added to a mature tank, plus the danios and probably the rainbows that you have are too active and will stress discus. They are pretty delicate fish that do not appreciate boisterous tank mates. I'd classify them as difficult to keep, and they are best left to people with some experience under their belts (that's not an insult to you, as I don't know your experience level, but rather just a comment).

Angels should be fine with your other fish as long as you acclimate them slowly. It helps if the LFS around you has some in tap water with roughly the same perameters as yours- it's a lot less of a shock to the fish when you actually start the acclimation process. In my experience larger angels acclimate more readily and are easier to keep. If you want them, go ahead and give them a try. But before you do, bust out that test kit and make sure all is good with your water- ammonia and nitrites= 0, and nitrates at 20 or less.

Good luck!

[davexstumpe]

I think I really need to add some color. The platies and mollies can give me lots of color. I was going to add Discuss or Angels but the LFS guy said they wouldn't do well in our water.

I will say in my defence I added the 19 fish thinking I was cycled. I was under the impression that one of the reason you do a fishless cycle is stock all at once. Maybe it was overkill, but I did think I was going slow for the size of my tank. Anywho now I am back on track and will add slowly.


Ph 7.6
High Range PH 7.4


7.6 is fine for pretty much any fish

i was under the impression your pH was over 8

and i'd say wait a few weeks before introducing discus, and make sure your params are stable and no more fish loss.

[catt410]

Thanks all. I have been testing the water since the last fish were added last week. All is good 0 nitrites, 0 ammoina and 20 nitrates. I really want to add some color so i may go with the platties. What about tetras? the LFS guy said no to those to.

Any sugestions for bright colored not hard to take care of fish.......

[rwilliams254]

Why in *#&#^% would the LSF guy say no to Tetras? what kind?

[catt410]

Again beacuse of the hard water. I think it was the black skirted (sp)...

He did recomend Birchardi said they would be good to but again I need color....

[davexstumpe]

ok. let's make things easier and COMPLETELY disreguard anything the LFS said.


that being said, get whatever appeals to you.

[catt410]

I know they don't know s***, but I thought he was on to something about the hard water.

So I guess I will do some research and see what is bright and colorful that I can't harm.....

[hatcheridiot]

Try some of those kong chew toys! They're bright, they're colorful, and man do they take a beating!

[gingerinaustin]

Cardinal tetras like soft, acidic water, that's why some people keep them with discus. I don't know about other tetras.