My tank has finally cycled. A few questions on next steps

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Joeyblaze8814

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
23
Hi all,

I'm happy to say my tank appears to be cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, lots of nitrates within 24 hours. Doused my tank with 3ppm ammonia again a few hours ago and will check in 24 hours to make sure it's cycled). I have a few questions on what I should do next

72g bowfront
2x fluval 406 filters


- I put crushed coral in my filters to keep the ph levels up (they kept dropping below 6.0). Do I need to remove it from the filters before I put fish in, or should I keep it in? The ph out of my faucet is around 6.4, so with the coral causing it to slowly rise, i'm not sure if having it in there will cause a problem.

- at 6:30pm tomorrow I will check the tanks parameters. If there is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and lots of nitrates, I will do a 90% water change to Bring the nitrates down. But do I need to add fish immediately after that? I know having 0 ammonia in the tank can cause my bacteria to die off, so if I leave the tank at 0 ammonia for the night and get fish the following day, is that a problem?

- how many fish is the correct amount to stock at first? If I plan on getting 8x rainbows 12x tetras 10x cory's 1x clown pleco, what should I get first and how many? I was thinking all 12 tetras first, or all 8 rainbows, but not sure if one order is better than the other. I also don't want to get too many fish or too little fish to start.

Any advice on how I should go about adding fish would be very helpful. I made it this far I'd hate to screw something up now.

Thanks all

Here's a pic of my tank

IMG_1477457356.702563.jpg
 
Tank looks great. My suggestion is that you leave the crushed coral in the filters in order to keep the ph stable. Your tank sounds like it is ready for fish, so I would add 5 or 6 of the least expensive fish to make sure that your tank is really cycled. If everything looks good after 2 weeks, I would add the rest of the fish.
 
Thanks for the reply. Any recommendations for a schooling fish to go with boesmani rainbows? I plan on getting 8 rainbows eventually but want to start with 12x of a smaller schooling fish
 
My favorite schooling fish are rummynose tetras. However, they can be sensitive when first acclimating so I wouldn't make them my first fish. Boesmani's grow fairly large, but the rummynoses swim in the bottom third of the tank so they should stay out of each others way. How about some pristella tetras?
 
The pristellas look pretty cool. Are there any slightly bigger tetras? I like the size/shape of the glofish tetras, but I'd prefer a more natural looking fish
 
The glofish that you are referring too are most likely modified black tetras, which I've always found to be boring. Pristellas don't really get that large. A larger tetra that is quite pretty but doesn't really school is the emperor tetra. I have 4 of them in one of my tanks and I really like them. Columbian tetras are another good large tetra.
 
Nice looing tank!

I have chichids; so I cannot comment on the nice type fish..LOL
Good luck! Keep up the great work.

Mike.:popcorn:
 
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