How long to wait before adding fish?

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Dfranks

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
15
Getting my tank this week u here so much about how long before add fish can some 1 please help
 
New fish

Got a 38 gallon tank going tropical what fish to buy 1st
 
Well let's try to narrow it down, first off do you want to do a planted tank, second what are your favorites! And third, what is your water chemistry like?
 
You can't buy the fish until its cycled, unless you want to do a fish-in cycle. I honestly favor fishless cycling but its up to you. But even with a fish in, you can't just buy a bunch of fish and throw them in there. A good Google search of cycling will help a lot, along with the link mumma provided :)
 
A welcome to AA!
Here is some info for you to read.
Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium
You need to cycle new tanks.
Letting a tank sit will not cycle it.
You have two options. Fish in or fishless cycling. There is info on both in the article above. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!

Do read up on aquarium keeping first BEFORE buying fish. We'd hate to see your fishies destroy each other or that they die due to wrong tank circumstances. :(

ALWAYS research before plunging into a new area... :popcorn:

and of course, you have a whole forum here to help out! :)

happy reading!
 
No not yet going to go with out think that the best way pet shop told to bring in a sample in a week
 
its best to buy your own test kit to see how the cycle is coming along that way you can know for sure, and you can easily test whenever you want. i recommend api liquid testing kits. also, you will need to know what your levels are everyday so that you can decide when to do water changes and when to dose ammonia. it will take at least 2 weeks for the cycle to complete
 
it does not tell you what it should be. But by the end of the cycle it should read

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
less than 20 ammonia

Search "fishless cycle" on google.Good luck
 
Actually in the booklets with instructions it gives you kind of a direction on how it should read but the parameters in the previous comment are correct

Correction where it says less then 20 ammonia it should be nitrates

So ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates not over 20
 
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