please help

[jackm]

Hi guys
i bought and filled my 120 litre tank 3 days ago i treated it with the anti chlorine stuff. i then took a few tests Amonia, Nitrite and the PH level(7), they all came out 0 so i went to the shop to buy myself a few fish. i bought home 1 young male guppy and 2 female guppies (1 is pregnant!)
i would love to know about which fish i can/cant add, and which to add first.
here is my desired list
8 guppys 3 male and 5 female
2 dwarf gourami 1 male ane 1 female
8 neon tetra
2-1 bumble bee gobie
2-1 kuhlie (coolie) loach
2 african dwarf frogs
3 bulldog plecs (please help, will these eat algea off glass sides or just the plants and gravel)

my tank has some dense planting and alot of open areas
i have a small rock cave (just three large rocks stacked on top of each other)
i have a fine gravel
keep my tank a 27 degrees c
i use a sponge filter
i hace 1 fairly big piece of bog wood

Please tell me if this is a good list to have for a responsible beginer, (ive done my research), and if the loach dosent go withe the frog or gobie please tell me.
Tahnks alot, i eagerly awit your reply(s)
Jack murphy

 

[Tiffi]

I'm sorry, but you didn't do your researvh well enough.
If you have set up the aquarium three days ago, it has definitely not cycled yet. You might have taken water tests, but that they are zero is just natural. The Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate has to build up first, since there is pretty much nothing in the water yet when you just poor it in from a faucet .
DEFINITELY don't put any more fishes in the tank, before the tank is cycled (about three to four weeks from now with fish food). Otherwise your fishes will die, exspecially if you don't monitor the water quality all the time now and make a part-water-change when necessary.
There is a article (http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=21), that will explain more about this 8O .
Good luck!

 

[rich311k]

You will have to cycle your tank first. Read the article above. Now that you have guppies in the tank your ammonia levles are going to start to rise. Do partial water changes to keep the levels under .5.

The bumblebee gobies are brackish water fish so you will need to take them off your stocking list.

Oh and Welcome to AA!!!

 

[Xzap]

I'm still new to fish keeping myself, so I don't want to give advice I'm not comfortable with.. but I would put 5 or 6 zebra danios in there, do daily water changes, referred to as pwc, of 25%.

See if your local fish store, lfs will take the guppies back.

I think the plants will help with the ammonia uptake, correct guys ?

Thx,

Dave

 

[rubysoho]

yup, real plants will help with ammonia but not by much, you still need to change out about 10-15% of the water each day for the next week or so. Don't feel bad, I'm sure you were given bad advice on setting up a fish tank and "cycling" it. Just about everyone getting into the fish hobby seems to make the same mistakes.

Welcome to AA!!!

 

[urville]

That depends on how densely planted the tank really is. Could help very little or alot. But I would feel safe assuming he isnt using high light or co2 and therfore it wont help much if at all as his plants are locked in exactly how much uptake there is. I can tell you from experience if he's using HIGHLY dense planting, 30ppm co2 and 3 watts or more per gallon lighting i doubt he'll need to worry much at this point.
other than that everyone else said what needed to be said.

 

[TomK2]

Welcome to AA!

Jackm-
Three guppies in a 30 something gallon tank is not necessarily going to give you trouble. But you will have trouble if you add much more fish. Since you have decided to establish a biologic filter (cycle the tank) with fish, your life and your fish's life will be a lot easier if you take a very slow course over the next 6 weeks. If you keep the bio load low, you can cycle the tank AND keep the ammonia and nitrite less than 0.25 ppm, without becoming the newest water change king. I have a web page devoted to the topic:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0017.htm
edit: skip over the technical stuff if you need to (i know, lots of run-on sentences, a little difficult to read, I just haven't had the time to rewrite it), the meat of the advice is in the last few paragraghs

Please take a look at it if you want. Basically, if after 2 or three weeks you do not have any ammonia or nitrite due to your low number of fish and sparse feeding, you might be able to add another 2 or three inches of fish, but that would be it until you see the nitrate level rise without any ammonia and nitrite. It could take 6 or 7 weeks. If you get ammonia or nitrite, water changes, daily if necessary, to keep them below 0.5 ppm will be required.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

[Toirtis]

As well....what type and size of sponge filter do you have? There are very few sponge filters that will do a good job at filtering a 120L, well-stocked tank.