Newbie starting a 30 gallon tank

i wouldnt listen to them at all. choose the fish you want. you shouldnt get just one rainbow there a schooling fish like the tetras. generally you get 2 females to one male. so that around spawning time he doesnt bully the one female to death. otherwise your plan sounds fine, fight that urge to just chuck them all in.

Hi,

I agree with the above poster. You should definitly get what you want, not what the store wants to sell ya. You will need more rainbows, as the above poster states. Also, you also need to keep an eye on nitrites and nitrates, not just ammonia. If these get too high they could easily kill your fish. Good luck.

Sandy

I would go with a school of rainbows and a few bottom dwellers(corys, khulis, ghost shrimp) if I had a new 30g.

You should visit the LFS in your area. Look at all the fish and make note of the names of the ones you like. Do some research on those fish by asking about them here and searching books/internet for info. You can do a fishless cycle on your tank while your researching. Once you know compatibility and the basic needs of the fish you like then you can post your plan here for some advice from other aquarists.

OK, stop there. As far as introducing your fish, you need to cycle your tank before any of these fish go in to it.

If you want to do a fish cycle, you could probably cycle with your sword tails (I think they are the hardiest out of the fish you have), but be aware that one or both may die. Doing a fish cycle will take around 4-6 weeks. During this time you do not add any other fish, but take daily readings from the water, and do alot of water change (probably one a day on the tank around 50% or more of the water). After those 4-6 weeks, when your ammonia is 0, your nitrite is 0, and your nitrate is below 20, you can start adding your fish, probably 2-3 at a time once a week. Any more than that and you could have seriously biological issues with your tank.

Option 2 is to do a fishless cycle. This is were you put pure ammonia in the tank with NO fish, and cycle your tank this way. If you have got the time, this is really the way to go. You wont have to do any water changes, just test and add pure ammonia to the tank when needed. This will also take about 4-6 weeks and you can put in a full tank of fish at one time once this cycles (apparently from what ive read).

Your last option is to use bio-spira. This is a bacteria that you introduce to a tank when u add the fish. You will need to add all of your fish at once if you plan on using this. This product should cycle your tank within 1 to 2 days. Caution though, this product doesn't always work, and you may get stuck with cycling a full tank of fish. The bio-spira must be kept refridgerated to work.

Good luck and read up a bit on cycling your fish tank

Sandy