Fishless Cycle Question

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Manic Fury

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Oct 26, 2013
Messages
110
Location
Menomonie,Wisconsin
My tank is ALMOST done. FINALLY! I'm at the stage where you wait 24 hours to see if the Ammonia-->Nitrite is at 0 ppm.

I was wondering if I could add in some new gravel and decoration to my tank prior to it being completely cycled. This is probably a dumb question, but better to be safe than sorry!

Thanks!
 
Yeah That would be fine, most the good bacteria, which you would have been growing, is in the filter, so adding new gravel won't do any harm, as long as its clean, but as you've went thru an entire fishless cycle and won't want to ruin ut I suggest you put the gravel in, next day do the ammonia 24hour test and if all is good do the massive water change, then get adding fish, them be sum happy fishies!

Sent from my HTC Desire C using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Yeah That would be fine, most the good bacteria, which you would have been growing, is in the filter, so adding new gravel won't do any harm, as long as its clean, but as you've went thru an entire fishless cycle and won't want to ruin ut I suggest you put the gravel in, next day do the ammonia 24hour test and if all is good do the massive water change, then get adding fish, them be sum happy fishies!

Sent from my HTC Desire C using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Awesome. I knew it was an easy question. I just needed to make sure and the Interweb wasn't helping much. Thanks!

Also, I need some stocking suggestions. I have a small list going so far. Let me know what you think...

I have a 10 gallon tank with a Tetra Whisper EX45 HOB filter...

5-Celestial Pearl Danios
3-Sunburst Platy
2-Guppies (haven't decided what kind to get yet)
 
The CPDs are a good choice; I've had them before, pretty little fish BUT very shy; they do best in higher numbers, so I would get at least 8-10. Platys and guppies have a high bioload and if you get different genders they will likely breed and you'll be overrun with fish. I would do the CPDs and either 2 platy or 2 guppies. A better choice might be another shoal of nano fish, like ember tetra to go with the CPDs instead of the platy or guppy.
 
The CPDs are a good choice; I've had them before, pretty little fish BUT very shy; they do best in higher numbers, so I would get at least 8-10. Platys and guppies have a high bioload and if you get different genders they will likely breed and you'll be overrun with fish. I would do the CPDs and either 2 platy or 2 guppies. A better choice might be another shoal of nano fish, like ember tetra to go with the CPDs instead of the platy or guppy.

Thanks for the advice. My tank wasn't quite ready yet yesterday. The ammonia only went down to about .25 ppm in 24 hours, so just to be sure, I dosed it back up to 2 ppm to check again.

I am planning on getting my fish from Petsmart because of the lack of a LFS in my area. Do you think they would be experienced enough to differentiate between male/female platy or guppy? Or should I do some research of my own to make sure?

I really like the look of platy and guppies, especially the sunburst platy. I think I would go with platy.

Would there be a problem if I got:
2-Sunburst Platy
5-CPD
5-Ember Tetra
 
I think the CPDs would be freaked out by the platies that are 4 times their size. I would not put the platys in there at all. You should probably stick with just CPDs and Ember tetras. If you do that you could probably do 8 of each IMO. They have tiny bioloads. TBH I think 8 CPDs and 8 ember tetras equals 3 platys and 2 guppies. Seriously.

Also, you don't plan on adding a 45 gallon rated filter onto a 10 gallon do you?
 
I think the CPDs would be freaked out by the platies that are 4 times their size. I would not put the platys in there at all. You should probably stick with just CPDs and Ember tetras. If you do that you could probably do 8 of each IMO. They have tiny bioloads. TBH I think 8 CPDs and 8 ember tetras equals 3 platys and 2 guppies. Seriously.

Also, you don't plan on adding a 45 gallon rated filter onto a 10 gallon do you?

I see what you mean. Maybe I should weigh my options more. I really want schooling fish, but I don't want JUST schooling fish.

That was the plan. Is 45 too much? I thought about that. Do you think the filter would cause too much of a current for the smaller fish?
 
I see what you mean. Maybe I should weigh my options more. I really want schooling fish, but I don't want JUST schooling fish.

That was the plan. Is 45 too much? I thought about that. Do you think the filter would cause too much of a current for the smaller fish?

Well it would if the water level is too low. I don't think those filters are adjustable (pretty sure I have one :lol: ), but if you keep the water level consistently high you might get away with it. Some fish can't swim well with tanks that have lots of current, like bettas and gouramis. You'll just have to be careful.
 
Well it would if the water level is too low. I don't think those filters are adjustable (pretty sure I have one :lol: ), but if you keep the water level consistently high you might get away with it. Some fish can't swim well with tanks that have lots of current, like bettas and gouramis. You'll just have to be careful.

I generally keep my water level high. Pretty much as high as it goes. I'll just have to test it out. If the fish seem to struggle too much, I guess I'll fork out the cash and get a smaller one.

Thanks for the input!
 
No problem! You can always save that 45 for another tank... :brows:

That's the reason I bought it. I own a 30 gallon tank that won't fit in my current living situation, so I got a 10 gallon that needed a filter. So I decided that buying a 45 would be cheaper than buying 2 filters if I wasn't even going to be using one of them. Plus, bigger the filter, less cleaning. :)
 
Back
Top Bottom