How many days do you wait for a NEW fish?

[Christine22780]

Is the grace period about 10-14 days? b/c of the ammonia--->nitrite---->nitrate cycle

Does it matter if the fish are small or large the cycle and days are still the same?

 

[LandGhoti]

You can add fish when you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and ~40 ppm nitrates. How big is your tank? The cycle takes as long as how much of a bacteria source you have. What do you have in there?

After I first cycled my tank, I added 9 SMALL fish at once and I've never had a problem since. Now I have 13.

EDIT: Upon re-reading maybe you've already cycled? If so, you shouldn't have to wait to add a new fish. If you have a sufficient biofilter, you should be fine.

 

[roka64]

I wouldn't put 9 fish iin a newly cycled SW tank. You can add 2-4 (depending on what fish). The beneficial bacteria needs time to adjust to the new bio-load.

 

[cmor1701d]

If your tank is established then you should wait at least 2 weeks between adding another fish (or 2), but preferably about a month. As Scott said the tank needs to adjust to the increased bioload.

I would strongly suggest that you QT all new fish for a month before adding them to the tank. That involves having a QT tank ready and a filter 'simmering' in the main tank for an instant cycle in the QT tank.

 

[LandGhoti]

Oh shoot--sorry!! I didn't even look to see that this was posted in SW. Yikes. Never mind anything I said. LOL. I'm at work and frazzled, so probably wasn't smart to try and be smart.

 

[melosu58]

No problem Andrea. LOL I agree with the others that your tank has to catch up with your bioload. Add your fish sparingly.

 

[roka64]

Don't sweat it Andrea, I have had the same issues as well!

 

[Innovator]

Saltwater or freshwater, rules still apply. I would do as Cmor suggested in waiting 2 weeks if not 1 month to allow your benthic faunas to populate before adding fish that prey upon them. How many fish to introduce depends on what species you are interested in. For example, an animal that gets over 5" you'd probably be better off adding one to see how your new system reacts, but some animals may do better as a pair or even in harems (4+)...