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I'm 17 days into a fishless cycle, having bought a new 7 gallon starter set up,the tank has plastic plants, good aquatic gravel, a Rena Filstar filter & heater etc, my preferred choice of fish would be 2 platy's, 1 cherry barb and 3-4 black phantoms, which would be introduced over a 3 week period.
At present my water sample test is; ammonia 1.2, nitrite 0.25 & Nitrate 20, obviously way too lethal for any fish, I have treated the water with; nutrafin aqua plus, Nutrafin cycle & tetra aquasafe in addition to the tiny satchet of stress zyme that came with the tank, I'm also contemplating putting in some small floating plants.

Will plants (floaters) help with reducing the nasties and if so which would be best.

Bearing in mind I'm just over 2 weeks into a completely new set up, would a would water change help (I live in a very hard water area) and if so how much.

Would a bigger / better filter help (the current one came as a starter set up, seems to be doing ok (there is visible water movement) and I think all it needs is time.

I am aware that it takes time to cycle a tank, is doing nothing (letting nature takes it's course) the best course of action or can plants & or a major water change etc help?.

Finally my choice of fish, would they get on ?, ideally I'd like at least 2 different "small" species and becuase of the tank it rules out a lot of school'ers like neon's etc, I don't like betta's and I like fish that look like fish (cherry barb like), if that makes sense.

Thanks for any help info anyone can give.

Welcome to FP!

Patience is the best and safest way, so just let the tank run it's course for now. I have a small problem with what you want to stock in the tank though, and you are wise to ask questions now instead of crying about it later.

Platties are livebearers, and will quickly make lots of babies. Maybe not as many as Guppies, but still quite a few. Saying this you would need a much larger tank in the very near future help house the fry until they are large enough to sell back to the LFS.

Black Phantoms...I hate to say this, but there isn't a nice thing I can say about them. They have always given me troubles, and killed/eaten everyone else in my tank except for themselves:%)so I have learned to just plain stay away from them.

Cherry Barbs...well from what I read they should be kept in small groups...and don't tend to be overly aggressive. Quite beautiful from what I saw in pictures...But they prefer shade. So, I'd go ahead and get some real plants and plant the tank, then take out the plastic plants, the fish will love you for it.

I'd get 3 of the Cherry Barbs, and have you seen the Harlequin Rasboras? They are awesome, and I don't know for sure, but I think they would make a nice compliment to the Cherry Barbs, and are about the same size...So I'd also get 4 of the Harlequin Rasboras...and if you add them over a couple of weeks, and keep up with your water changes you should be fine...

Does anyone know if Cherry Barbs and Harelquin Rasboras shouldn't be kept together? Water Parameters match...
Best of Luck,
Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Cant comment on the barbs and rasboras....maybe a seperate thread is in order in Cyprinid Corner

nutrafin aqua plus, Nutrafin cycle & tetra aquasafe in addition to the tiny satchet of stress zyme that came with the tank...

Not positive on some of those, but you seem to be overdoing it with chemicals ....if any of them are ammonia neutralizers they could be providing a false reading on your water test, additionally as there are no fish in the tank there is no need to worry about neutralizing the ammonia. Some live floating plants are always IMO a good idea.

And yes, since the tank is so small you do need to keep the stocking to a minimum. Anything under 15 gallons will be difficult to keep stable even in an experience keepers hands. No black phantoms, they're tetras and need a larger school than a tank of that size could provide room for.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"

Last edited by Babelfish at 28-Mar-2005 14:27

Here is a link to the best article I've seen on fishless cycling.

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/fishless%20cycling.html

Basically he describes getting clear ammonia (I didn't find any at lowe's or walmart but found some under a supermarket name brand just called 'clear ammonia') and putting in enough to get a certain reading on your test kit (really high, but not too high)...

You might know a lot of it already, but he does say to use only water conditioner that removes clorine and cloramines - not something that will remove ammonia. You might look really clearly at the stuff you're adding.

And he tells you how much ammonia to add daily, and he says when the ammonia goes down and nitrites go up you should add half as much ammonia each day.

Anyhow, I was trying to fishless cycle a 5 gallon by adding fish food and was using way too much - he set me straight on that.

I was using one of those bio-enhancers (supposed to have good bacteria in it) called Cycle for awhile but I don't think it helped.

I'm now trying Nitromax - it has an expiration date and needs to be refrigerated once you open it, but I think it's helping. But clearly I'm not super experienced with this and I could be imagining it... A fish store guy who knows more than any other fish store guy I've ever spoken with recommended it to me, and he was so obviously experienced and sane that I decided to take his word on it. It could be hard to find.. I'm not sure.

But yes, patience is definitely one thing you'll need a lot of! Especially because small tanks are much harder to deal with than big ones - harder to cycle, harder to keep stable, and harder to stock properly.

Best of luck - and right-on that you figured out about fishless cycling! I cycled a tank with fish in it before I heard enough about fishless cycling to give it a try on my next one. Happily everyone lived through the cycle (it was goldfish and understocked) but I'll only do fishless from now on.