New to fish keeping

[chadly48]

Hello,

I just joined and am looking forward to getting advice on this forum. I've always wanted to keep fish and I finally took the plunge and bought a 20 gallon tank. I currently have two Flame Gouramis in it and I would like to add Tiger Barbs. I've read that the minimum number of Tiger Barbs you should keep is 6 if you don't want them to harass other fish. Would this be too much for a 20 gallon tank?

My goal is to get a large salt water tank in the future, so I want to make sure I do things right with this first tank so I don't get discouraged.

Thanks

[kwandrsn]

Did you cycle the tank before adding fish or are you doing a fish in cycle

[chadly48]

I'm doing a fish in cycle. I had the tank running for about two weeks before adding the fish. I used Seachem Prime to condition the water. A few days before I added the fish I began using Seachem Stability(I know some people say it's crap and others say it works) to establish the biofilter. I've been doing daily water tests and the ammonia and nitrites have been staying at zero. There was a small increase in ammonia after I added the fish, but I expected that, and by the next day the ammonia was back to zero.

The Gouramis have been in there for almost a week and they seem to be doing well. I'll be continuing the daily water tests for the next few weeks and if I notice the ammonia or nitrite levels getting too high I'll be doing more water changes than just the weekly water change.

[kwandrsn]

Cool the people here have a lot of good advice. They have helped me out a bunch and still help me out everyday. One thing I have learned is if your lfs tells you something check here first. I am doing a fish in cycle as well. This is my first aquarium. The petco woman has had me do a few things that has seemed to hurt my cycling process err. Anyways good luck

[Andrew McFadden]

to AA! We hope ya enjoy

[Convict2161]

Welcome to AA