When to add fish

[Pittenger5]

How do you know when its safe to add fish? I know there will be cycling for a long time (relatively), but do you need to wait the entire cycling period to add fish, or just until it stabilizes for the most part?

 

[spoonman]

Cycle must complete. 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites and minimal nitrates. Anything put in before that happens is likely to die a horrible death. Just my .02.

 

[markodeniro]

Cycle must complete. 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites and minimal nitrates. Anything put in before that happens is likely to die a horrible death. Just my .02.

+1 to that don't rush into anything I have learnt from this mistake.


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[TheTodd]

At the end of the cycle, you should have 0 ammonia and nitrites. Nitrates will be there (because that's what those first two are converted to). Do a decent sized water change to bring those nitrates down and you should be good to add a fish. Don't add several, be patient. If you add too many fish at any time, it will overwhelm the beneficial bacteria and the ammonia/nitrites will start to register again.

To really be sure, you can get pure ammonia and dose that up to 4ppm. In a cycled tank, that should drop back to zero in 24hrs (or close to that).


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[Pittenger5]

Sounds good, I just heard some people say it can take months to fully cycle. I'm in the ballpark of those numbers, so maybe another week or two I should hopefully be good to go.

 

[TheTodd]

How are you cycling the tank? What is your ammonia source and how are your readings looking so far?


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[Pittenger5]

Right now I'm sitting at the below:
Ph 8.2
Nitrite 0.5
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrate 0.0

So perhaps a bit soon to think about it.