Ok to put first fish in 50g aquarium that has no plants/ornaments?

[JPA]

I am planning on adding plants and driftwood to my aquarium over time. In fact, I just bought a piece of driftwood...That now I apparently have to wait weeks to let it soak so it won't ruin the clarity of my water before I put it in.

Anyway, I was thinking of adding a school of cardinals to the tank (6).

Will not having anything in the tank stress them out?

Should I invest in some temporary fake plants to give them some cover?

Is it possible to buy driftwood that has already had all of the tannin soaked out of it?

Or, more simply, is it too soon for me to buy 1 or 2 real plants?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[mfdrookie516]

is the tank cycled yet? that would be my main concern first off

 

[JPA]

mfdrookie, you again help me out.

Yes, the tank has been cycling for about two days now, and I added some gravel from a stable tank to start building up the bacteria.

 

[mfdrookie516]

ok, just make sure you keep adding the ammonia and testing it to make sure its completely cycled before adding fish, especially tetras, as they are usually some of the weaker fish.

 

[JPA]

adding the ammonia? I just used "Primer" to condition the water and get rid of, among other things, ammonia.

 

[mfdrookie516]

read the link in my signature on fishless cycling, even read the one on cycling with fish. you'll understand the concept after reading them. you add ammonia to feed the bacteria, as the bacteria colony grows, it starts turning the ammonia in to nitrites. once there are nitrites, another set of bacteria grow and turn it in to nitrates. nitrates under 60ppm are safe for fish. once you have nitrates, and 0 ammonia and nitrites, its safe to add fish (after a big water change of course)

 

[JPA]

Thank you for those links, they were helpful and certainly made me understand the process more than I did beforehand.

To be honest, I'm trying to get my tank established pretty quickly because I start work in a couple of weeks, and after that I won't have any time to work on it.

Any advice on how to get it stabilized quickly to be ready for fish? I'm not going to load the tank, Just one or two schools.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i think you pretty much have the concept of seeding down pat, since you used some established substrate. What i did on my 150g was took two canisters and an hob from other tanks i had and stuck them on it after it was set up. I added fish the next day. If you have another filter or have a friend with a healthy tank that you could get some filter media from, that would speed it up tremendously. Realistically, if you have seeded already, you may be able to cycle it in 2 weeks. It really depends on alot of factors. Having the heat up a little high, like around 78, seems to be a recommendation from several people, though i dont cycle tanks now, i keep two filters running on each tank in case i need to set up another tank

 

[JPA]

There's a possibility I could get a biowheel from my friend's father that has been running for years and years. After that, I would be pretty good to go, right?

 

[Lynae]

dont mind me.... but I love driftwood!!
the tannins wont ruin the clarity necessarily, unless from a beach or something.
they tone the water a slight yellow colour, I fell in love with the look of not truly transparent water....
most fish absolutely love it, as it also contains weird minerals, unless they require a very high Ph, and hard water conditions.
I say to not worry too much about keeping it out soaking for weeks.. months... cause that takes forever!

 

[mfdrookie516]

yeah, the biowheel would probably help... you'll still want to add ammonia and test it to make sure it is cycled, but it should reduce the amount of cycling time... a cartridge would be better

 

[sarahsunshine]

Adding a plant from a healthy aquarium could help a lot too. It would bring some bacteria with it, and reduce any nitrite spike that you may have. Adding live plants now is definitely an option.

I'm too impatient to cycle without fish, but I'm also too much of a wuss to try doing daily water changes on a 150g aquarium!!!