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Hi there,

I have just brought myself a new fish tank today and just started in up. I think its a 10litre one.

How long do you need to wait before you can add some small fish (maybe 2/3). It says in the manual 7 days but another manual to look after fish says 24 hours.

Can you help?

Thanks

Leighton

A birth of fire moment coming .lol

Cycling a tank usually takes 21-28 days. A week or less is widespread and damaging petshop and cheap book BS.

You can do it a little quicker than that by adding cycling chemicals and bacteria, like biospira, cycle, safestart etc etc. Generally though its better not to rush it. Adding a fish at one to two weeks is often the most dangerous time to add fish as nitrite production is in full swing, often together with ammonia.

I guess somewhere some profiteering SOB at a petshop said, well ok, we know its not ok to add fish straight away, lets suggest a week and see if the dumb public buy that suggestion. Unfortunately they did,and as a consequence fish have been dying in their thousands every year ever since.

Without cycling products , safe time for fish introduction is 21 days minimum. Thats even when using organic detritus or ammonia to start the cycle. Some bigger tanks take well over a month to cycle.

Thats the real deal fella. Everything else you heard to date has been rubbish. Sorry to be the breaker of bad news, but the fish will thank you for waiting.

Wait the time, or use cycling products and constantly test the actual water perameters with a liquid test kit. Your looking for a flat zero on traceable ammonia and nitrite, and a small but readable level of nitrate before fish go in the water.

Cycling with fish costs lives, often even if you do it with traditionally tough fish like bettas and danio's. Do it without. Its the best way to start bar none. Youll feel much happier knowing that you never risked a fishy life for such an easily doable thing. Cycling using fish is often doable too, but there is ALWAYS a risk to fish health, no matter what anyone tells you, and no-one can guarantee you a fish wont die during a cycle. Caring fishkeepers do fishless cycling.

Hope that helps , and lays it down for you accurately. Its often hard to choose the best way with a myriad of opinions thrown at you, and people are often advocates of getting people to do as they have done , often in order to make themselves feel better about taking risks with lives. IMHO theres no need for it. Start right, fishless cycle.

When youve found your feet, then you can make all sorts of decisions and face calculated risks with some genuine qualititive judgement. When starting, dont take advice that may risk fish health . In the coming weeks you'll know that I lied to you not.

Happy fishkeeping and welcome to FP!

Thanks for your advise. A friend of mine introduced me to this website and it looks very interesting!

Leighton /:'

We're here to help. LHG gave you some great advice . Follow it and we'll soon have you addicted to fish like the rest of us are

You can take the cycling time to look through the profiles section here on FP and post any plans or questions you might have about further stocking. Once you're down to zero ammonia, zero nitrIte with nitrAte present you'll be armed with the info you need on stocking the tank.

Keep in mind that 10L is pretty small, and you'll be pretty limited in what you can keep. Which is why, as soon as you're addicted you should probably do the easy thing and get yourself a nice big tank .

^_^

Hi there and again thanks for the advise. My mistake, its not a 10 litre its 30. Its a Mirabello one.

Little more room to play with, but the same still applies. You'll be looking at fish that get no larger than 2".

Also, so you're aware. Smaller tanks are harder to keep. A small shift in water contidions (say a ph drop or an ammonia spike) will be more of an issue in a small tank than a large tank.

^_^

Was it mentioned somewhere in there that for cycling to take place you need to add an ammonia source? Just setting the tank up and leaving the equipment to run for a month isn't going to do a thing. You need to add something that will break down into ammonia. That used to be fish waste from live fish but the fish then have to deal with the harmful effects of cycling. Now many just add fish food or pure ammonia daily to cycle the tank without fish. You need a good liquid test kit (aquarium pharm is the most recommended) with ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to keep track of the cycle and know when it's safe to add fish.

The fastest way to complete a cycle is to get filter media or gravel from another tank that has been running for awhile, put it in your tank, and then start adding your ammonia source while testing the tank frequently to see when it finishes. If you add lots of media to a small tank you can sometimes instantly cycle the tank enough to add a small amount of fish the same day but usually all you knock off is about a week of cycling time. However this does run the risk of introducing illnesses so best done with media or gravel from a friend's tank that you know has been disease free and had no new fish added in the past year or so.

Hi
Welcome to Fish Profiles!
While you are reading up on "Cycling" here is an
article on "Fishless Cycling." This allows you to cycle
your tank without injuring or killing any fish.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article14.html

When the tank has cycled, you should follow Babel's
suggestion about the fish to go in it.

Frank


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