Where have all the NitrAtes gone...

Grats

Feeling your pain and was in a very similar situation I am happy for you, I SO look forward to the day I dont see purple anymore! Has to be close.
Seeing your success strengthens my resolve to get through the cycle!!

Enjoy your fish :)
 
Congrats Julz!!! I had a feeling it would be sooner than later! All this waiting, will be indeed well worth it!

-Red
 
I noticed you want to add guppies. I would add the two guppies and the shrimp to start, then the DG, then the neons, and finally the otos once your algae is established.
 
Fishless cycles are performed for a few reasons:
1. To spare fish from a cruel death / torture during the cycle
2. A fishless cycle is quicker than a fish cycle. Some may debate this but mine have taken 21 or less days.
3. To allow you to fully stock your tank at once at the end of the cycle.

If you just finished a fishless cycle and you DONT add all of your fish at once, your bacterias will die off leaving only enough to support the fish that are in the tank. When you add more fish, you wil go through a mini cycle each time. This won't happen if you fully stock your fish now since the bacteria levels after a fishless cycle are much higher than you would have with a fully stocked tank. (if you added 2-3 PPM of ammonia each day during the final stages of cycle). Just make sure you do a major 50-75% water change to drop your Nitrate down and you should be able to fully stock. You MUST continue to add ammonia every day untill one day prior to adding fish or your bacteria will die off.
 
There is no need to add all the fish at one time. Once bacteria is established in an aquarium it can reproduce very fast, if some of it dies off it is not that big of a deal. An aquarium will always have continuous "mini-cycles" as factors are constantly changing in even the most established aquariums.
 
I've always started my fishless cycles with media and gravel from another well established tank and it has still taken three weeks or so.
Do whatever you want since there are differing opinions.
I'm just glad I didn't put two platys in my seventy five, wait a week and then added the other 28 fish. I'm not sure if fish would have died but I would imagine it would have been too stressfull for them. This is an extreme example so I'm sure if you space things out it will be fine.
 
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